











.^^'>. 












ft- V 



ft^o^ 










TYPICAL CHARACTER 



OF THE 




ispm^^Hti0n^» 



BY THE LATE 



THE 

joh:^ beyeeidge. 



Edited by H. F. HOYT. 



JUL 23.1883 I 

mCHMOKD, VA. : 
WHITTET & SHEPPEKSON. 

1883. 






CorYRiGHT, 1888, 

BY 

H. F. HOYT. 



Printed by 

Whitlet & Shepperson, 
Richmond, Va. 



TYPICAL CHAKACTER 



OF THE 



OLD AND NEW DISPENSATIONS, 



IN THEIK RELATION TO 

THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE KINGDOMS 
OF CHRIST, 

IN FOUR PARTS. 

PART I. — The Lokd's Day and not the Jewish Sabbath. 

PART II. — The Pharisee and the Publican ; or Man's 
Duty to Man. 

PART III.— The Lord's Miracles. 

PART IV.— Sermons. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Sketch of the Author's Life, .... 1 



PAKT FIKST. 

The Lord's Day, and not the Jewish Sabbath. 

Introduction. — There is no command to observe the Jewish 
Sabbath before the Exodus from Egypt. — Institution of the 
Jewish Sabbath. — The prophetic significance of the Jewish 
Sabbath in the desert. — Confirmation of the Jewish Sabbath 
in the giving of the law. — If the Jewish Sabbath is trans- 
ferred to the Christian system, we are morally bound to 
keep it as the Jews were required to do. — The Sabbath 
made for man, and net man for the Sabbath. — The New 
Covenant not a patch on an old garment. — An incontro- 
vertible argument. — The Jewish type fulfilled in the 
Christian antitype. — " There remaineth therefore a rest for 
the people of God," is not alone a rest in heaven, but a 
rest of grace here on earth. — What relation does the 
Lord's Day bear to the rest of the New Covenant ? — The 
Jewish Pentecost a germ of the Lord's Day. — The Christian 
Lord's Day an outgrowth of the New Covenant System, — 
The Lord's Day more holy than the Jewish Sabbath. — The 
Jewish Sabbath a symbol of death ; the Lord's Day a 
symbol of life, — The Jewish Sabbath a symbol of dark- 
ness ; the Lord's Day a sj^mbol of light. — The proper ob- 
servance of the Lord's Day may be learned from the pro- 
phets as well as from the Mosaic law. — The proper ob- 
servance of the Lord's Day. — The Lord's Day a day of 
intense activity. — " Sunday" an appropriate name for 
the Lord's Day. — Review and Conclusion. . pp. 9-115 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



PAKT SECOND. 

• THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN, 

Christ's Sermon on the Second Table of the Law, or 
Man's Duty to Man, ■ 

Page. 
118 

124 

131 

147 

173 

183 

193 

20G 

217 

235 

242 



The Preface, 

The Lost Sheeji, 

The Lost Piece of Money, 

The Prodigal Son, 

The Elder Brother, . 

The Children of the Church, 

Did the Elder Brother Repent? 

The Unrighteous Steward, 

The Rich Man and Lazarus, 

Application, 

Conclusion, 



PAKT THIRD. 

THE LORD'S MIRACLES. 

1. Water turned into Wine, 

2. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 

3. Christ Stilling the Tempest, 

4. Healing the Demoniac, 

5. Jairus' Daughter Raised, and 

6. The Issue of Blood Stopped, 

7. The Healing of the Paralytic, 

8. A Leper Cured, . 

9. The Centurion's Servant, 

10. Miracle at the Pool of Bethesda, 

11. The Five Thousand Fed, . 

12. Christ Walking on the Sea, 

13. Christ Healing a Blind Man, 

14. Restoring the Withered Hand, 

15. The Ten Lepers, . 

16. The Syrojihenician Woman, 

17. The Lunatic Child, 



247 

266 
276 
284 

315 

333 
345 
353 
360 
371 
385 
393 
402 
409 
416 
423 



CONTENTS. 

18. The Stater ia the Fish's Mouth, 

19. Raising of Lazarus^ 

20. The Last Miracle. 



Vll 
Page. 
433 
440 
456 



PAKT FOUETH. 

SERMONS. 

1. Samson, a Champion of the Law, 

2. David, a Champion of the Gospel, 

3. Joshua's Conquest of Canaan, 

4. Original Sin; Second Part of Josh 

5. Melchisedec, 

6. Christ a King, 

7. Our High Priest, — JSTo. 1, 

8. The Great High Priest.— No. 2, 

9. The Laborers in the Vineyard, 



. . • 


479 


. 


486 


> 


491 


ua's Conquest, 


496 


. . 


502 


. . . 


506 


• 


511 


. . . 


519 


. 


525 



SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 



Birth and Early Education. 

EEY. JOHl^ BEVERIDGE was bom in Shelby 
county, Ohio, of pious parents, whose humble 
circumstances enabled them to give him no higher 
advantages of education than such as the common 
scliools afforded. His education, beyond the mere 
rudiments, was obtained by his own unwearied efibrts, 
perseverance, and energy. 

Early Struggles. 
About the time he arrived at man's estate, he 
drifted eastward, and became a resident of the city 
of New York. Uniting with one of the Presby- 
terian churches of that city, he went vigorously to 
work, and became at once an efficient and zealous 
laborer in the Sunday-school cause. Feeling that 
he was called to tlie ministry, lie set about to secure 
the requisite education. With tliis object in view, 
lie made application to the late Hon. Wm. E. Dodge 
for means to assist him in prosecuting his studies. 
He felt encouraged to make this application on ac- 
count of the well-known liberality of that generous 
philanthropist, who frequently rendered such assist- 
ance to poor young men. In their interview Mr. 



2 SKETCH OF THE 

Dodge qnestioned him closely in regard to his phy- 
sical condition and state of healtli, and then, detect- 
ing, as he tlionght, signs of that insidious destroyer, 
consumption, he kindly declined the desired assist- 
ance, and advised liim to abandon all thought of 
entering the ministry, and to devote himself to some 
more active employment as the only hope of pro- 
longing liis life. Thrown thus upon his own re- 
sources, with that strength of will which charac- 
terized him, Mr. Beveridge resolved to surmount 
every obstacle by liis own unaided efforts. For this 
purpose he learned the art of wood engraving, by 
means of which he supported himself while devoting 
his spare moments to his studies. 

Goes to South America. 

Having acquired great skill as a wood engraver, 
and thus secured the means of self-support, he re- 
solved to go to South America in order to perfect his 
knowledge of the Spanish language. While there, 
with characteristic zeal, lie engnged in missionary 
work, laboring at fii'st in connection with a mission 
of the Metliodist Church, and then with one of the 
Church of England. He also engaged in the pub- 
lication of a newspaper in tlie Spanish language, 
which he embellished with wood cuts of his own 
skilful production. For several years, with un- 
wearied energy and industry, he continued its suc- 
cessful issue, vigorously assailing the errors of 
Roman Catholicism, and disseniinating the prin- 
ciples of Protestantism. 

In 1869 he returned to this country, entered Lane 



author's life. 



Seminary, where he completed his tlieological course, 
was ordained to tlie ministry by the Presbytery of 
Cincinnati, and under the auspices of the American 
and Foreign Christian Union, was sent as a 

Missionary to Mexico. 

The Mission witli wliich he was connected was 
shortly afterward transferred to the care of the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions. JNTuraerous letters from liis friends and 
co-laborers testify to the ability, zeal, and success 
with wliich he labored while thus employed. His 
work in Mexico, however, was of short duration. 
In less than five years it was brought to a close by 
his failing health. That fatal disease whicli Mr. 
Dodge had foreseen and predicted years before, and 
the dark shadow of whicli had hung over him all his 
life, now began to develop itself. On this account 
he was compelled to leave the Mission, and to return 
in 1875 to the United States. - • 

Coming to the South, 

He fixed his residence at Cuthbert, Ga. Here his 
health was so far restored that he felt that he could 
again enter upon the active work of the ministry. 
For this purpose he decided to go to Florida, as pre- 
senting an inviting field of usefulness, and hoping 
that its mild clitnate would serve still fiirrlier to re- 
store his shattered health. 

He labored first at Freeport, in West Florida, and 
then settled in Orlando, in Orange county, as pastor 
of the Presbyterian church. In addition to his min- 



4 SKETCH OF THE 

isterial labors, lie became a constant contributor to 
a newspaper, furnishing various articles on scientific, 
literary, and religious topics. Tlie spriglitly style of 
his writing, together with his varied and useful in- 
formation, and his extensive and accurate knowledge 
of the different countries lie had visited, gave to these 
articles a charm that won the admiration of numer- 
ous readers. 

One of them thus writes to the editor: "I began 
to read a little carelessly the articles b}^ Mr. Beve- 
ridge, now and then questioning a little his meteor- 
ology, chemistry, and geology, but soon came to have 
more respect for his assertions, as 1 found him know- 
ing so much more of these subjects than I could ever 
hope to know. But his th.eology has most interested 
me, showing the man in his best character, and fur- 
nishing weekly an intellectual table that should fully 
satisfy the mental appetites of those who have the 
good fortune to receive your paper.*" 

Another, an. editor of a journal in a distant city, 
says of them : " The Orange County Reporter should 
^make up' in book form, and 'strike off' enough for 
an edition of a thousand copies, the serial articles 
from the pen of Rev. John Beveridge, artist and 
traveller. They are very interesting, and of much 
scientific value." The first part of this volume, on 
The LorcTs Dmj^ forms a portion of this series of ar- 
ticles. 

Another admirer, a member of a dififerent church 
from his own, pays him the following compliment: 
"Mr. Beveridge is a deep thinker, and a bold, elo- 
quent, earnest speaker, attacking error wherever met, 



author's life. 



wliether in the translation of the Bible or the com- 
mentaries." 

Health Fails Again. 

His labors were again interrupted by the utter 
breaking down of his health. A severe hemorrhage 
from the lungs completely prostrated him, and threat- 
ened the speedy termination of his life. Saying, with 
Paul, "the time of my departure is at hand," he im- 
mediately set about arranging his temporal affairs to 
that end. Having no family or near relatives to pro- 
vide for, his only earthly ambition seemed to be to 
provide for the publication of two books, — the result 
of his life's labors; by means of which he hoped to 
do good, and accomplish something for the Master's 
glory after his death. Having settled his affairs in 
Orlando, he returned to Cuthbert in the spring of 
1881, saying to his friends, that he had "come back 
to die." He, how^ever, rallied again, and, as his 
strength permitted, continued his work upon his 
books, one of which was still in an unfinislied state. 
Almost to the very last he persevered in these la- 
bors; and when from failing strength he could do 
no more, he committed his unfinished work into the 
hands of the writer, with instructions to complete it, 
and to publish the two books as soon as the necessary 
means could be obtained. This sacred trust, com- 
mitted to him by the dying lips of this servant of 
God, the writer now fulfils. The incompleted work, 
to the best of his ability, has been finished, and is 
now given to the public. The remaining book, ac- 
cording to the directions of the author, is shortly to 



6 SKETCH OF THE 

follow. What the verdict of the reading world in 
regard to tliem is to be, yet remains to be seen. If 
they accomplish good, the author's hope will be re- 
alized. 

Falls Asleep in Jesus. 

Having disposed of tliis matter, in full possession 
of his mental faculties, and without a sliadow or a 
cloud to interrupt the sun-liglit of God's presence, 
on the morning of February 18tli, 1882, lie sweetly 
fell asleep in Jesus. 

As A AYrtter, 

Mr. Beveridge was a bold, independent, original 
thinker. He certainly had learned to " call no man 
master." He was no imitator. His books, whatever 
merit or demerit the}^ may possess, certainly have the 
charm of originalit3\ -^i^ readers or hearers were 
never invited to a re-liasli of other men's ideas. He 
thought forliimself, and was never afraid to trust his 
own conclusions. The Presbytery of Macon, in its 
memorial of him, speaks of liim as "a man of fervent 
piety and remarkable mental activity; original and 
independent in tliought, very confident of the cor- 
rectness of his own views, however they might differ 
from those conmionly accepted." This is a correct 
and truthful picture. 

As A Christian, 

he was characterized by earnestness, zeal, and untir- 
ing activity in his efforts to do good, and by the most 
unshaken confidence in the truths of God's woi-d. 



1 



author's life. 



He was no idler in the Lord's vineyard. From the 
moment he gave himself to the Master's work, his 
earnest desire and constant aim was to be useful. 
"To do good and to communicate," was an injunction 
of the apostle he never forgot. Nothing but the 
palsy of death could stay his active mind and busy 
hands from working for his Master's cause. The 
confidence of his faith in the plain teachings of God's 
word is illustrated by the following incident: While 
in Florida lie was challenged by a noted Universalist 
to a public discussion of tlie doctrine of future pun- 
ishment. His reply was characteristic. After de- 
clining on the score of bad health to accept the chal- 
lenge, he adds: "I cannot say, however, that I take 
a deep interest in the subject of eternal punishment, 
feeling, as I do, that the absolute sovereignty of God 
gives Him the right to do what He will with His 
own creation, and His infinite justice will not permit 
Him to impose upon the wicked one single ounce of 
punishment more than they rightfully deserve. My 
mission is to warn sinners to 'flee from the wratli to 



come.' " 



This confidence did not forsake him when tested 
by his last hours of weakness and suffering, and the 
near approach of death. He could still say with the 
Apostle Paul, "I hnow whom I have believed, and 
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto Him against that day." 

H. F. H. 



PATIT FIRST. 



THE LORD'S DAT, AND NOT THE JEWISH 

SABBATH. 

Iiq"TEOD[JCTION^. 

IT ]ias long been a disputed point among Christians 
whether the Lord's day, commonly called the Chris- 
tian Sabbath, is, or is not, a transfer of the Jewish 
Sabbath into the Cliristian or New Covenant system, 
merely changing the day of the week and suppressing 
the death penalty attached to it under the Old Cov- 
enant. At the present time, a large majority of evan- 
gelical Christians firmly believe that the Jewish Sab- 
bath has been transferred to the Cliristian system, 
while a verj^ small minority believe the Lord's day 
to be an institution peculiar to the New Covenant, 
and an outgrowth of the New Testament system, 
similar to the gospel ministry, and in intimate con- 
nexion with it, and yet no more of a transfer of the 
Jewish Sabbath than the gospel ministry is a trans- 
fer of the Levitical priesthood; both of these being 
but a shadow or prophecy of the corresponding insti- 
tutions of the New Covenant. 

The author of the following articles, after a careful 
examination of the claims of both parties, has decided 
in favor of the minority, finding himself fully con- 
vinced that they are in possession of the truth. He 



10 THE lord's day, 

cordially invites fair and honest criticism, either to 
confirm him in the truth, or clearly indicate where 
his line of argument departs from the solid basis of 
the inspired oracles. From all those critics who con- 
demn wdthout examination, merely because his views 
are not those of the majority of professing Christians, 
or not in accordance with the opinions of illustrious 
teachers who are as liable to error as himself, he asks 
no sympathy, and expects none from that Judaizing 
class who are ever ready to exclaim: "Except ye be 
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be 
saved." To the cause of truth the condemnation of 
sucli men is far preferable to their praise. 

On referring to the Confession of Faith of the 
Presbyterian Church, it will be observed that the 
Westminster divines left tlie question undecided. It 
says: "The fourth commandment requireth of all 
men tlie sanctifying or keeping holy to God such set 
times as He hath appointed in His word, expressly 
one whole day in seven ; wliich was the seventh from 
the beginning of the world to the resurrection of 
Christ, and the lirst day of the week ever since, and 
so to continue to tlie end of the world ; wliich is the 
Christian Sabbatli, and in tlie New Testament called 
the Lord's day." The designation " Christian Sab- 
batli" here, would indicate a distinction between this 
and the Jewish Sabbatli. 

In accepting the position that the Lord's day is 
not a transfer of the Jew'ish Sabbath, the author has 
the satisfaction of knowing that he has at least one 
illustrious Presbyterian in his favor — John Calvin. 

Calvin says: "If superstition is dreaded, there was 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 11 

more danger in keeping tlie Jewish Sabbath than the 
Lord's day, as Christians now do. It being expedient 
to overthrow superstition, tlie Jewish holy day was 
abolished; and as a thing necessary to retain decenc}^ 
order, and peace in the Church, another day was ap- 
pointed for that purpose." {Calvin's Institutes, Book 
2, Chap. 8, Sec. 33.) Calvinists of the present day 
appear to have departed from the views of Calvin, 
probably owing to the loose manner in which the 
Lord's day is observed in those portions of Conti- 
nental Europe where the Reformation was first es- 
tablished by Calvin and Luther. It is usually sup- 
posed that these views lead to a disrespect of the 
Lord's day, and consequently should be deprecated. 
This is not right. We should not depart from the 
truth of God's word because ignorant or wicked men 
abuse it. The author of these articles would not de- 
tract one particle from the proper observance of the 
Lord's day, as required by the sacred Scriptures, and 
would rejoice to see the day observed and respected 
far more than it is, by the great majority of evan- 
gelical Christians of the present day ; his only object 
in presenting his views to the world being a desire to 
know and teach the truth as revealed by God's word, 
and not erroneous view^s based upon human prejudice 
or tradition. But was Calvin right? Were his views 
of the Lord's day in accordance with Scripture ? Was 
he not in error on this point? Have not his disciples 
become wiser than their teacher ? It is hoped that 
these questions may be answered satisfactorily in this 
investigation. 

The author has chosen as a clear exposition of the 



12 THE lord's day, 

views he combats, a prize essay entitled " The Holy 
Sabbath," and published by the "Presbyterian Com- 
mittee of Publication," from which he has taken the 
liberty of making frequent extracts. In doing this, 
he wishes to say that he has no desire to depreciate 
his brethren in the ministry, but, by pointing out 
their erroi's, he would desire that we may all grow 
in knowledge as well as in grace, till we arrive " in 
the knowledge] of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Ciirist," and by "speaking the truth in love, we 
may gi'ow up into Him in all things." 

There is no Command Given to Men to Observe 
THE Jewish Sabbath Before the Exodus from 
Egypt. 

The first record we liave of the seventli dav is in 
connection with the creation of the world. "And on 
the seventh da}^ God ended His work which He had 
made; and He rested on the seventh day from all 
His work which He had made. And God blessed 
the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it 
He had rested from all His work which God created 
and made." (Gen. ii. 2, 3.) There is certainly no 
command here to man to keep the day holy. This 
is merely an historical record, telling us that God 
rested after completing the woi'k of creation. Nor 
are we told how long He rested. Did He rest one 
day of twenty-four hours, and then resume the work 
of creation? No one will answer this in the affirma- 
tive. Did He on the eighth day resume the work of 
supporting and sustaining the creation which He had 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 13 

made? If so, what became of the creation on the 
seventh day? It is universally admitted that, were 
God to withdraw His sustaining power from the uni- 
verse but for a single moment, it would be utterly 
annihilated. This power, then, was exercised on the 
seventh day, according to our Saviour's words: "My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 

We find ourselves, then, compelled to accept the 
conclusion that the seventh day, or day following the 
six days of creation, was not a literal day of twenty- 
four hours, but a period — a day in creation's history, 
reaching from the end of the six days in which crea- 
tion was brought into existence, down to the morn- 
ing of redemption, when a still more holy day was 
ushered in. 

]^ow, as geologists have proved as clearly that the 
world was not created in six literal days, as geogra- 
phers have that the world is a globe, and not an ex- 
tended plain, and the Church universal has accepted 
this view (except a few, who would have us believe 
that God created the world, with its great mountain 
ranges, largely composed of countless millions of sea- 
shells, which would l>e as absurd as to suppose that 
He created the pyrajnids of Egypt in the same way, 
only to try men's faith), we can have no doubt but 
the seventh day is a period reaching from the time 
when He created man, and that then looking upon 
everything that He had made. He pronounced it 
good, down to that hour when the work of redemp- 
tion was completed, and the Second Adam exclaimed 
from the cross, "It is finished." 

We are told that at the commencement of this 



14 THE lord's day, 

period, '* God blessed tlie seventh day, and sanctified 
it : because that in it He had rested from all His 
work which God created and made," and tlien, to- 
wards its close, prophecy points forward to its termi- 
nation, and says: ''Seventy weeks are determined 
npoii thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the 
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to 
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in 
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision 
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Ploly." (Dan. 
ix. 24.) 

"God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." 
He blessed and sanctified it in an especial manner. 
The six periods in which God created all tilings 
were but preliminary to that period in whicli man 
should dwell upon earth. He blessed it by walk- 
ing with man in the beginning, and sanctitied it b}' 
coming Himself clothed in human flesli to redeer/i 
man fi'om the curse of the fall. God blessed and 
sanctitied the seventh day of the world's creation : 
but does this prove that He commanded man to ob- 
serve the seventh da}' of the week ? 

There is absolutely no command given to men in 
the Bible to observe the seventh day of the week 
before the exodus from Egypt, nor is tliere any pas- 
sage of Scripture from which such an inference can 
be derived ; and any assertion to the contrary is pure 
assumption. If any such command had been given, 
Moses would certainly have recorded it ; or are we 
to assume that he did record it, and that the Jews 
lost it out of the Bible ? Give us proofs, and we 
will believe them; but mere assertions without proof 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 15 

are of no value. To assert that "the great Creator 
should in some way demand of His creatm'es a for- 
mal acknowledgment of their fealty to His throne; 
that He should seek to bind them to Himself by 
levying a tribute upon tlieir love and affection; that 
He should appoint a place and designate a time 
when He would condescend to meet them, and gra- 
ciously admit them to communion with Himself; 
that He should select for this purpose the day of 
His resting from His creative work; and that He 
should hallow tlie day thus selected, by separating 
it from all the rest, and making it holy as He is 
holy, that it miglit tlius ever stand as a perpetual 
witness for Him," would be all well and good, if we 
had any proof to that effect. To assert that God 
would not abandon His creatures without giving 
them the Sabbath day from the beginning, merely 
because our finite views thus deal with His charac- 
ter, would also assert that a lioly God would not 
abandon His creatures to sin. The latter we know 
is not true, and the former is equally deficient of 
proof. It has no basis in Scripture, and to our own 
finite reasoning we have no right to appeal. 

We know that God walked with the patriarchs, 
and no doubt taught tliem to obey His will by ver- 
bal communications; and we also know that He had 
His servants who, like Noah, were preachers of 
righteousness, or, in other words, teachers of the 
moral law ; and thus have good reason to infer that 
He required of His children a proper portion of their 
time in consecration to Himself, a first fruits, as it 
were, of that day which He had blessed and sancti- 



1^ THE lord's day, 

fied, and which the patriarchs doubtlessly gave Him ; 
but tliis is vastly different from a direct command to 
keep holy the Jewish typical Sabbath day. The for- 
mer we admit from inference; the latter we deny. 

Institution of the Jewish Sabbath. 
That the Jewisli Sabbath was given to the Jewish 
nation, or rather nation of Israel, and not to the 
world, is plainly evident to any one who will care- 
fully read the history of its institution as recorded 
in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. On the even- 
ing of the fifteenth day of the second month of the 
Jewish sacred year, the Israelites arrived in the 
wilderness of Sin, weary with the day's march 
through tlie desert, and having exiiausted the un- 
leavened bread wliich they carried out of Egypt, 
and which had now lasted them thirty days, count- 
ing from the morning of the day in which the Pass- 
over lamb was killed, and fearing that they would 
all perish there in the desert, they murmured against 
Moses and Aaron. Then we are told that the Lord 
said unto Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from 
heaven for you; and the people shall go out and 
gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove 
them, whether they will walk in My law, or no. 
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they 
shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall 
be twice as much as they gather daily." Then ac- 
cording to this promise quails were given them in 
the evening and manna in the morning, until the 
sixth day. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth 
day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 17 

for one man; and all the rulers of the eon2:reo:ation 
came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This 
is tliat which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the 
rest of the holj sabbatli unto the Lord; bake that 
which ye will bake to-day, and seethe tliat ye will 
seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for 
you to be kept until the morning." Our Eng- 
lisli version here would rather indicate, that what 
Moses tells them that the Lord said, had been said 
some time before; but such is not the case. The 
true rendei-ing is, ''This is what the Lord said^'' 
now revealed to the people for the first time. Then 
when the seventh day liad arrived, "Moses said, Eat 
that to-day; for to-day is a sabbatli [not the sabbath] 
unto the Lord ; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. 
Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, 
which is the Sabbath, in it there shall bo none."_^ 

Here we have the institution of the Jewish Sab- 
bath, which in its institution is denominated "a 5<2^- 
^a^/i," and henceforth called '' the sabbath."* Then 
we read, that in direct violation of this command- 
ment som^e of the people went out on the seventh 
da}^ to gather manna, [and found none. Then the 
Lord said unto Moses, " How long refuse ye to keep 
My commandments and My laws?" (Other ver- 
sions say, " Till when do you not wish to keep My 
commandment and M}^ laws?") "See, for that the 
Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He 
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; 
abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of 
his place on the seventh day. So the people rested 
on the seventh day." 



18 THE lord's DAT, 

Here, then, we have a record of the institution of 
the Jewisli Sabbath, instituted among and for the 
Jews; a commandment given to the Jewish nation, 
and not to tlie world. Those who maintain tliat the 
Christian Lord's day is tlie Jewisli Sabbath trans- 
ferred into the Christian system, contend that it was 
given to the whole world from the beginning, and 
that this is but an historical record enforcing its ob- 
servance. The writer of the prize essay, "The Holy 
Sabbath," quotes the first half of the twenty-third 
verse of this chapter: "To-morrow is the Sabbath of 
the Lord;" and then adds; "This is not the language 
of a legislator, but of an historian, and the whole 
context shows that it was not a new, but simply the 
revival of an old statute that had fallen into disuse." 
(yThe Holy Sabbath^ P^^gc 29.) The writer is un- 
doubtedly in error here. The whole context clearly 
indicates that it was the giving of a new law, and not 
the revival of an old one. The command : " Eat to- 
day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord;" like 
the whole of the context, contains not only a law re- 
ojulatinoj the srathcrinoj of the manna, hut also a7i 
authoritative appointment of a day of rest. Moses 
tells the people: "The Lord liath given you the Sab- 
batii, therefore He giveth you tlie bread of two 
da^'s;" which proves clearly that tlie Jewish Sabbath 
was a new institution given with the bread, and that 
the manna, or its equivalent, and the day of rest are 
so intimately united that they cannot be divorced. 
"So the people rested on the seventh day;" that is, 
because the bread of two days had been given them. 
This is the first record of any people resting on the 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 19 

seventh day, and we are not left in doubt as to the rea- 
son why they did tliis, and why God commanded them 
to do so. The Sabbath day was given to tlie Jews be- 
cause God gave them food from heaven for six days, 
doubling the supply on the sixth. Tlie confirma- 
tions of this day witli other and more important rea- 
sons for observing it, will be examined in their pro- 
per place. If the observance of tlie Jewish Sabbatli 
is an old statute, we should be pleased to see more 
potent proof of it tiian can be derived from the six- 
teenth cliapter of Exodus. Until such proof is forth- 
coming, we shall believe as we now do, that it was 
first given and only given to the Jews, and not to the 
world. 

The PnoPHEnc Significance of the Jewish 
Sabbath in the Desert. 

The author of the prize essay, after referring to 
tlie manner in which the Sabbath is interlaced in all 
the symbolisms of Scripture, says: "Tliis recurrence 
is just as noticeable in the typical develo^m.ent of 
Scripture, That development is in septenary cycles. 
Seven is tlie archetypal number, and seven periods 
the archetypal cycle, in typical cosmogony. Thus 
the seven seals contain the seven trumpets, and the 
seventh trumpet contains the seven vials. Seven 
days bring on the Sabbath, seven weeks the Pente- 
cost, seven months the atonement, seven years the 
sabbatic year, seven sabbatic years the jubilee, seven 
thousand years the millenary period, as is generally 
believed, and for aught we know the seventh millen- 
ary period will be the dawn of heaven, the final ever- 



^^ THE lord's day, 

lasting jubilee." {The Holy Sahhath, page 10.) Ex- 
cepting perhaps the latter part of this quotation, that 
referring to tlie millennium, it contains a very im- 
portant trutii. Let us see how well it applies to the J 
institution of the Jewisli Sabbath in the desert. 

The Jewish nation may be considered to be a type 
of the whole world from the-death of Christ to\he 
end of time. The exodus from Egypt may, then, 
well represent God's calling a people to Himself 
through Christ, either by the preaching of the word 
to adults, or, as in the case of infants, by being born 
under gospel influences. Tlie cold, hard, unlervened 
bread which they brought with them from Egypt is 
that innocence of childhood (the innocence of igno- 
rance) wliich Paul knew before the commandment 
came. (Rom. vii. 9-11.) This can but barely sus- 
tain life, and that but for a short time. It gradually 
grows harder and more mouldy until it finally disap- 
pears altogetlier, and we are brought face to face with 
Moses and Aaron, tlie representatives of the Law and 
tlie Sacrifice, where we are found murmuring at our 
sad condition. The promise is then given us, and im- 
mediately fulfilled, of bread from heaven. Christ 
Himself is the true bread from heaven, but He was 
not given to the Israelites in the form of the Holy 
Comforter at the same time that the law was given. 
The sacrifices were first instituted, and then the pro- 
phecies given ; a temporary bread, which could afford 
life only lx>r the time being, but which would disap- 
pear before the coming of the true bread. A double 
supply of these, however, was given in the teachings 
of John the Baptist and the disciples of Christ, and 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 21 

of Christ Himself in the flesh, before the rest of tlie 
Holy Comforter was instituted. And so it is with 
us through the journey of life. As tlie liard, unleav- 
ened bread of the world passes away, we find ever 
increasing consolation in God's word, till we are 
about to leave the world, and then comes a double 
supply, and we enter into rest. These six days are 
prophetic days, and if multiplied by seven, give us 
forty-two. Counting from the tenth day of the lirst 
month, when the Passover lamb was chosen (Ex. xii. 
3), to the twenty-second day of the second month, 
that on which tlie Jewish Sabbath was first instituted, 
including both the first and last of these two days, ac- 
cording to the Jewish mode of reckoning, we have just 
forty-two days; or omitting these two days, we have 
forty. In like manner, after journeying forty years 
in the desert, stopping at just forty-two stations, the 
whole nation arrives at the land of Canaan, and 
rests from the toils and weary wanderings in the 
desert. Here the manna, which had furnished them 
with food through these long years, suddenly ceases, 
and they partake of the fresh fruits of the land. 

But the Jewish Sabbatli is not discontinued when 
the Jews enter Canaan. A law liad already been 
given which confirms its continuance till the true 
manna and the true rest should come. On the con- 
trary, in connection with this, another Sabbath was 
now^ to be established, a yearly Sabbath, wliich was 
not given to the world, nor to Israel in the desert, 
but was confined alone to Canaan. "And the Lord 
spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying. Speak 
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 



22 THE lord's day, 

When ye come into the land which I give you, tlien 
shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six 
years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou 
shalt prune thy vineyard and gatlier in tlie fruit 
tliereof : but in the seventli year sliall be a sabbath 
of rest unto the bind, a sabbath for tlie Lord: thou 
shalt neitlier sow tli}- field nor prune thy vineyard." 
And in connection w^itli tliis was also established 
the Jubilee, wliich, like the former, belonged alone 
to the land of Canaan, and not to the world. (Lev. 
XXV.) These Canaanitish Sabbaths were an out- 
growth of the condition of the Jews in tlieir own 
land, and ceased to exist wlien Canaan ceased to be 
a type of God's kingdom, just as the Jewish Sab- 
bath ceased to exist when the famil}^ of Jacob ceased 
to be the typical kingdom of God, in the coming of 
tlie Saviour, not of Israel, but of tlie world. 

Now, just as the Jewish Sabbath was instituted 
forty-two days after the Passover lamb was chosen, 
and the nation entered into the rest of Canaan after 
forty-two journeys in the desert, so the Son of man 
came after forty-two generations had passed away 
from Abraham, according to Matthew's genealogy, 
and forty from David, according to Luke. That 
true bread from heaven of which the manna was an 
imperfect type, if tj^pe at all, gives, not life to the 
body, but life to the soul, sent not to the typical 
Jew, but to the Christian world ; not to give a rest 
after the labor of gathering it, but to give a rest 
from sin. The Shadow has passed away now; the 
Body, Christ, has come. 

Some critics have supposed that Luke, writing for 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 23 

the Gentile churcli, speaking of the ascension of our 
Lord as occurring forty days after His resurrection 
(Acts i. 3), did not use the Jewisli mode of reckon- 
ing, vvliich would give fortj-two days, counting the 
day He arose and the day He ascended. If this is 
true, the forty-second day would fall upon a Jewisli 
Sabbath, a most appropriate day for the completion 
of our Lord's entire work upon earth. Tliat our 
Lord ascended from earth to heaven on the Jewish 
Sabbath, and not on Thursday (according to the old 
almanacs), can hardly be doubted ; otherwise Luke 
would not have been so careful to tell us that the 
place where He ascended was a Sabbath-day's jour- 
ney from Jerusalem. (See Alford on Acts, i. 12.) 

The words of the prophet Hosea, "When Israel 
was a child, then I loved him, and called My son 
out of Egypt," being a prophecy of future events, 
are not as applicable to ancient Israel as to the 
present Israel of God, or those who are called by 
His word as it is revealed to us in the Old and ^qw 
Testaments. Those who are born of religious pa- 
rents are called out of Egypt in infancy, when the 
manna, the " milk of the word," is fed to them b}^ 
their parents in childhood. The manna does not 
appear to be so much a type of Christ in the Holy 
Comforter, promised before and sent down after 
His ascension, that "strong meat" which Paul 
speaks of (Heb. v. 12), but a type of the word as 
taught before regeneration ; something coming from 
heaven, yet through a human instrumentality, and 
not directly from the Father, as w^ere the teach- 
ings of the Holy Spirit ; something that if abused 



24 THE lord's day, 

might become corrupted (Ex. xvi. 20), yet of which 
a double supply was to be secured in preparation for 
that rest when the Holy Spirit by regeneration be- 
comes our teacher. 

" TJien Jesus said unto them, Yerily, verily, I say 
unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from hea- 
ven. For the bread of God is He which cometli 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 
Then said they [the Jews] unto Him, Lord, ever- 
more give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, 
I am tlie bread of life: he that cometli to Me shall 
never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall 
never thirst." (John vi. 32-35.) 

Now we well know that what Moses gave was 
the law^ and that which frees us from the law is the 
gospel. The law condemns to deatli ; the gospel 
gives life. We now "see tlie full meaning of Christ's 
words: "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did 
eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is 
the bread which cometli down from heaven, that a 
man may eat tliereof, and not die." (John vi. 48- 
50.) The Jewish Sabbath, then, is typical of that 
rest under the gospel which frees us from the fear 
of deatli. 

It is usually supposed that the manna was a type 
of Christ. This can hardly be true. If it were, it 
would not become filled with worms, nor would the 
gathering of it be prohibited on the Sabbath day. 
Again, the manna ceased when the Israelites en- 
tered Canaan. Does Christ's presence leave us 
when we enter into the rest of His kingdom ? Paul 
refers to a spiritual food of which the Israelites par- 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 25 

took on the iiiglit in which thoy passed through the 
Red sea (1 Cor. x. 3, 4), but then Paul tells us that 
that spiritual food was Christ himself, and not the 
material manna which fell in the desert. It would 
rather appear, then, that as Moses gave the law', and 
the manna was not given by Moses, but rained from 
heaven, it was a type of something that would give 
lite for the time being, but would disappear when 
the true bread came which giveth life to the world. 
Now, if the gospel is the true bread rained from 
heaven (Deut. xxxii. 2), then tlie spiritual manna 
which precedes the gospel must be the ceremonial 
law and the prophecies, occupying an intermediate 
position between the moral law and the gospel, and 
yet being in reality but an introduction to the gos- 
pel. The ceremonial law is fulfilled, and the pro- 
phecies cease to be given, after the true bread of 
Canaan, the gospel, comes. Yet on the last day, 
that period when our Saviour walked tlie earth 
clothed in human fi.esh, there was a double supply 
given in the parables whicli He spake and the mir- 
acles wliich He performed. 

Confirmation of the Jewish Sabbath in the 

Giving of the Law. 
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; but 
the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; 
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, 
nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made 
2 



26 THE lord's day, 

heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, 
and rested the seventli day; wherefore the Lord 
blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Here 
we have the Jewish Sabbath confirmed to the Jew- 
ish people, and a second reason given why they 
should observe it. That reason is, tliat in six days 
God rested from His work, and rested on the sev- 
enth and blessed it. Tlie cause, as stated here, is 
the glory and magnificence of the day of rest after 
tlie labor of creation, prophetic of Christ's rest after 
the labor of redeeming a world, and of our rest, 
througli Him, after liaving toiled tlirough the Ohl 
Covenant and restins^ in the New. 

No one can doubt for a moment that this com- 
mandment was given to the Jews. But it is main- 
tained that it was not given to them alone. They 
tell us, "It was set at the beginning, and was clearly 
intended for Adam and his posterity'. Hence the 
* stranger within the gates,' the representative of the 
whole outside world, was also required to keep tlie 
law." {^The Holy Sabbath^ P^^ge 27.) It is rather 
difficult to understand how the stranger within the 
gate can be a representative of the outside world 
before the gate is opened to the Gentiles. When 
Christ comes, who Himself is the gate^ and by the 
sacrifice of the cross opens the door to the Gentile 
world, tben the Gentiles will be admitted into His 
kingdom. We find no proof here that God gave 
the Jewish Sabbath to the world. 

Now, if we turn to the fifth chapter of Deuteron- 
omy, we will learn the reason why this day was 
given especially to the Israelites. We have already 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 27 

learned when it was given, and wliy it was to be 
observed as a liol}^ day, and here we have God's own 
word as to wliy it was given to typical Israel. After 
repeating the Fourth Commandment, He adds : "And 
remember that thou wast a servant in the land of 
Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out 
thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched 
out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded 
thee to keep the Scibhath day^ As God rested after 
the work of creation, so He commanded the children 
of Israel to observe a day of rest from the toil and 
affliction of Egypt. Exodus xx. 11 tells us why the 
day was blessed and hallowed, and Deut. v. 15 tells 
us wliy it was given to the Israelites. 

But an argument in favor of the transfer of the 
Jewish Sabbath is deduced from the fact that ^' it 
was formally incorporated in the moral law.^'' We 
quote again: "The ten commandments were spoken 
in an audible voice, by the Lord Himself, from the 
summit of Mount Sinai, in tlie audience of the peo- 
ple. They were then written with His own fingers 
upon enduring tables of stone. They were tlien, by 
His express command, deposited in the ark of the 
covenant, directly under the overshadowing mercy- 
seat, the symbolic throne of the Most High, indica- 
tive of the fact that they constituted the foundation 
of that throne; 'and lieaven and eartli sliall pass 
away before one jot or tittle of that law bh ill in any 
wise fail.' " ( The Holy Sahhath, P^^^ 32.) Can it be 
possible? We read this sentence again and again, 
but tliere can be no doubt about its meaning. It 
certainly means just wliat the words express. We 



28 THE lord's day, 

find it upon the page of a prize essay, for which the 
sum of two Imndred dollars was awarded by a com- 
mittee appointed for the purpose, and it was cliosen 
from one hundred and eight manuscripts, at least so 
the prefatory notice informs us. It is written by a 
prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church, and 
published by the Presbyterian Committee of Publica- 
tion. There can be no doubt about it, and yet how 
much error it contains. Tlie quotation " and heaven 
and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of 
that law shall in any wise fail," is nowhere to be 
found in the New Testament. Christ says, "Heaven 
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." (Matt. xxiv. 35; Mark xiii. 31; Luke 
xxi. 33.) But then He means by "my words," His 
own gospel, in contradistinction to the passing away 
of the whole Jewish economy, wdiich He has just de- 
scribed under the symbolic language of sun, moon, 
and stars, and which did pass away when the veil of 
the temple was rent at the hour of His death on the 
cross. Again He says: "Till heaven and earth pass, 
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
law, till all he fulfilled:' (Matt. v. 18.) This is 
simply a declaration that the law is bindinir until 
fallilled, and no longer. When fulfilled, it ceases to 
exist. The passage from which these words were 
probably intended to be a quotation are to be found 
in Luke xvi. 16-18. The whole passage reads: "The 
law and the prophets were until John; since that 
time the kingdom of God is preached, and every 
man presseth into it. And it is easier for heave?! 
and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 29 

Whosoever putteth awaj his wife and marrieth an- 
other eomuiitteth adultery; and whosoever marrieth 
her that is put away from her husband committeth 
adultery." The declaration here is, that it is easier 
for heaven and eartli to pass, not that they shall pass 
away lefore tlie law is fulfilled. The very point of 
the law which Christ is here talking about, adultery, 
is one tluit must be fulfilled, and consequently pass 
away, before the heavens and the eartli. When the 
author of The Holy Sahhath penned these words, he 
never dreamed that he was misquoting the Scriptures 
in order to prove an error. It is the natural result 
of an entire misconception of the relations sustained 
by tlie Old and l^ew Covenants. The author's heart 
is right, but he has failed to obtain a distinct percep- 
tion of tlie line of demarcation between the Old and 
New Covenants, and stumbling over the word mercy- 
seat in our version, which is a mis-translation of the 
propitiatory of the ark or symbolical covering of sin 
(Psalms xxxii. 1) in the bosom of Christ Jesus, he at 
once supposed that it was a symbol of God's throne. 
Are the Ten Commandments the foundation of God's 
eternal'throne? Throughout the whole Mosaic rit- 
ual^ the whole symbolism of the Mosaic law is ac- 
companied by blood; blood poured out, blood sprin- 
kled, blood mingled with running water, blood every- 
wdiere, indicative that the moral law invariably con- 
demns to death. The universal language of Scrip- 
ture, whether in symbol, prophecy, or epistle, is that 
there is no life in the moral law. "Salvation is of 
the Jews" only, as the ceremonial law and prophecy 
adumbrate the gospel. We may well inquire, then, 



30 THE lord's day, 

wliether a law whose empire is universal death can 
be the throne of Him in whose presence death shall 
never come. Why, even here upon eart]i,'we are told 
that " tlie sting of death is the law," but death is 
disarmed of its sting bj tlie gospel. "The law was 
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ." We read in the new covenant of a "'throne 
of grace^'' but not of a throne based on the moral 
law. Will any one tell us that the command, "Thou 
shalt not covet tliv ncic^hbor's wife," is one of tlie 
pillars of the eternal throne in a kingdom wliere they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as 
the angels? We read of the everlasting gospel^ but 
nowhere do we read of the everlasting law. The 
members of the new^ covenant Church are spoken of 
as "built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Chi-ist Himself being the chief cor- 
ner stone," but they are nowhere repi'csented as be- 
ing built upon Moses. Moses' disciples belong to the 
covenant of works, not that of grace. Not the name 
of Moses, but "the names of the twelve apostles of 
the Lamb," appear upon the foundation stones of the 
wall of jasper. 

Are we still to be under tlie Mosiac law written 
upon tablets of stone wdien we arrive at home in 
heaven ? Is that throne, wdiicli shall shelter us then, 
to be based on the Ten Commandments? Does not 
our state of probation end when we pass from earth 
to heaven ? Of what use are tlie Ten Command- 
ments in a world where there can be no sin ? Do 
the Scriptures teach that God's throne is based on 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 31 

tlie Ten Commandments, or is it but a baseless tra- 
dition ? 

AVe do not deny but that there is a moral law given 
to the universe, written, ''not in tablets of stone," 
bnt in "fleshly tablets of the heart," whicli is eternal ; 
but the Jewisli Sabbath forms no part of it, any more 
than a piece of canvass on which is painted a portrait 
of Martin Lnther forms a part of Luther's body and 
soul. Tlie Ten Commandments, spoken in an audi- 
ble voice from tlie summit of a typical mountain, in 
the ears of a typical people, and engraven npon 
tablets of matei'ial stone, and then laid away in a 
typical ark — which, with all its contents and appur- 
tenances, except the Shekinali, was afterwards doubt- 
less destroyed (tradition to the contrary) by the ene- 
mies of Israel and of Israel's God — are vastly dif- 
ferent from the moral law given by God to the 
universe. A Jewish Sabbath given to a typical na- 
tion in remembrance of a rest from carnal bondage, 
and a type of a rest from sin, is immeasurably dif- 
ferent from its own antitype. In Christ we enjoy 
the antitype, and will for ever. To keep one day in 
seven holy, in memory of a rest from. sin through the 
resurrection of Christ from the dead, is part of the 
moral law; but even this must pass away when we 
enter that holy Jerusalem where there is no priest- 
hood, no altar, no temple, and no gospel ministry, 
and where all eternity (not time) is equally holy. 
To observe one day in seven, in memory of a nation's 
escape from carnal slavery, let that nation be Jew or 
pagan, is not an everlasting law. 

The ark of the covenant was a type of Christ's hu- 



32 



THE lord's day, 



man nature. In His bosom was hid the law. He 
alone of the woman's seed has kept the law in all 
its purity. Christ was "made under the law, to re- 
deem them that were under the law;" and when re- 
deemed, tliej are dead to the law even here in this 
life. To be redeemed from under the law is to be 
redeemed from the penalty of the law, and that pen- 
alty is deatli; and sliall those who are lieirs of eter- 
nal life be for ever beneath the shade of a throne 
whose very foundation stones speak of nothing but 
universal death ? Impossible ! The Shekinah dwell- 
ing between the cherubim was a type of the Holy 
Spirit dwelling in Christ, and which descended in 
visible form upon Him at His birth, in tlie form of 
the star whicli the wise men followed from the East, 
and in the form of a dove on the day of His baptism 
at the liands of John the Baptist. Christ kept the 
law for man through life, and annihilated it for him 
through eternity. 

If the Jewish Sabbath is Transferred to the 
Christian System, we are Morally Bound to 
Xeep it as the Jews were Required to do. 
If our Lord's day is l)ut a transfer of the Jewish 
Sabbath, then we should observe it with the same 
care and attention that the Jews were required to do 
by the Mosaic law. In the history of creation we 
read: "The evening and the morning were the first 
day." We well know that tlie Jewish Sabbath com- 
menced at sunset Friday evening, and ended at sun- 
set Saturday evening. Now if this were a part of 
the moral law, and in memory of the "evenins" and 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 33 

morning" of the seventh day of creation, we should 
be strict in its observance, and not commence the day 
at twelve o'clock Saturday niglit, and end at twelve 
o'clocli Sunday night, as we now do. 

Again, we should observe Saturday and not Sun- 
day, as we now do. To this it is answered that the 
apostles changed the day. They did ! Where is the 
proof oi' it? The apostles changed the day? And 
who were the apostles? If the apostles changed the 
day, then they are superior to Moses. If the apostles 
changed the daj^, tlien they had a riglit to demolish 
the day and substitute another day. Changing seven 
to eight by the apostles is a failing of a pretty big 
"jot" long hefore the heavens and the earth have 
passed away. If the apostles made this change, then 
there must have been something in the law that has 
been fulfilled. But did the apostles change the day ? 
Let us examine the proof they give us. They pre- 
sent passages of Scripture which speak of the apostles 
as meeting on the first day of the week; breaking 
bread, etc., on the first day of the week. We may ac- 
cept these passages merely for the inference that may 
be derived from them in favor of the observance of the 
Lord's day instead of the Jewish Sabbath ; but in the 
absence of something more positive they prove no- 
thing. We say they prove nothing, from the very fact 
that inferences may be derived from other passages of 
Scripture, equally as valid, that the apostles observed 
the Jewish Sabbath. Just as Christ had been in the 
habit of "standing up to read*' in the Jewish syna- 
gogue on the Sabbath day, so the apostles went into 
the synagogues and preached on the Sabbath day. 



34 THE lord's day, 

Paul "reasoned in the sjna2:ogae every Sabbatlj, 
and persnaded the Jews and the Greeks." (Acts 
xviii. 4.) His liistorian says of him, tliat at Philippi, 
*'on the Sabbath he went out of the city by a river 
side, wliere prayer was wont to be made; and we 
sat down, and spake unto the women wdiicli resorted 
thitlier." (Acts xvi. 13.) At Antioch, he and his 
companions "went into tlie synagogue on tlie Sab- 
batli day," and preached to the people, and at the 
close of his discourse the people invited them to come 
the next Sabbath. Then we are told : "And the next 
Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to 
hear the word of God." (Acts xiii. 14-44.) At 
Thessalonia, "Paul, as liis manner was, went in unto 
them, and th.ree Sabbath days reasoned with them 
out of tlie Scriptures." (Acts xvii. 2.) Now, if in 
any of these meetings they had continued tlieir preach- 
ing until sundown, and liad tlien partaken of bread, 
as it would be natural they should do after the toils 
of the day; or celebrated their communion or break- 
ing of bread, as Christ did w^ith His disciples after 
partaking of the passover, and as the apostles pi'o- 
bal)ly often did, it w^ould liave been recorded by the 
sacred historian as having been done on the first day 
of the week, as sundown Saturday evening closed the 
Jewish Sabbath. Now, the proof in favor of the 
Jewish Sabbath being transfen-ed to the New Cove- 
vant, and then changed by the apostles to the first 
day of the week, is so extremely slender that we feel 
that we are guilty of no heresy if we abandon that 
view altogether. 

The Lord's day we believe to be established by a 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 35 

higher antliority than either tlie apostles or Moses, 
even by Him who is Lord of the Sabbath day. 

If the Jewish Sabbath lias been ti-ansferred to 
Christianity, we are moi^ally bonnd to observe it as 
the Jews did, and the man who does not do so should 
be put to death. The writer says: "the only part 
that strictly belonged to the state was the death pen- 
alty, which was afterwards added, and which has been 
repealed, being no part of the original law." (The 
Holy Sabbath^ P^gG 30.) By whom was it repealed ? 
Did the apostles do it ? If so, w4ien ? Where is the 
record? The death ijenalty for murder is no part of 
the original law written upon the tablets of stone. 
Was that repealed at the same time ? By whom? 

Again, no beast was permitted to perform any la- 
bor on the Jewish Sabbath. No man-servant nor 
maid-servant, and no Gentile who was temporarily 
stopping at the house of a Jew, for so the phrase 
" stranger that is within thy gates " is to be under- 
stood, were permitted to do any work whatever. " In 
it thou shalt not do any work." Ko fire was allowed 
to be kindled, no food was allowed to be purchased 
or even prepared on that day. The command was 
very strict. "On the seventh day there shall be to 
you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; who- 
soever doth work therein shall be put to death." 
(Ex. XXXV. 2.) Even a man found gathering sticks 
on that day was commanded to be stoned. "And " 
they "stoned him with stones, and he died; as the 
Lord commanded Moses." (Num. xv. 32-36.) Nor 
was this all. We read in the New Testament, as 
the kingdom of God (not the Jewish nation) was 



36 THE lokd's day, 

verorino^ oq toward the New Covenant, of a Sabbath 
day's journey, but the ancient law says, " Let no man 
go out of his place on the seventh day.'- Now, will 
you tell us that that was a law given to the world, 
and not to a nation ? Will you tell us that the Es- 
quimaux in his snow hut must not kindle a lire on 
the seventh day to prepare his food; but that he 
must take it frozen as hard as a rock, or perish with 
hunirer ? No. The very demands of the New Gov- 
enant that we should not forget the assembling of 
ourselves together, prove that not only the death 
penalty, but the Jewish law itself, in tlie ceremonial 
and national part of it, is fulfilled by the establish- 
ment of the New Covenant. 

But you plead works of necessity. Necessity? 
We would rather hear you plead a God of reason 
and of justice, wliose laws can be obeyed without in- 
convenience by all classes and conditions of men, 
than to see you resort to such miserable subterfuges 
as this. If the Jewish law is binding now, why do 
you not obey it? If the Jewish Sabbath, as given 
and observed in the desert, is binding on Christians 
to-day, then our evangelical churches are a band of 
Sabbath breakers. You ride to church on your 
horses and in your carriages, and you return to a 
warm dinner, prepared by the "stranger within your 
gate" (if your cook happens to be a foreigner), and 
you complacently tell us that the only thing about 
this law that is repealed is the death penalty. Will 
you tell us that you feel yourself free to break God's 
holy law with impunity, merely because the Jewish 
nation does not possess the power to enforce the 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 37 

deatli penalty? Or, do these infringements on the 
law, written on tablets of stone ^ come under the cate- 
gory of works of mercy and necessity ? Look the 
stubborn fact squarely in tlie face, and then tell us 
whether these are works of mercy and necessity any 
more tlian the gathering of manna by the Israelites 
in the desert, or the gathering of sticks to cook it 
with ? Works of mercy and necessity, indeed ! If 
it is vour law, obey it. Will you charge us with 
lieresy because we deny that the Jewish Sabbath is 
binding on Christians? Then you will permit us to 
charge you with being a band of Sabbath breakers, 
and according to your own law you should be stoned 
till you are dead. 

The Sabbath Made for Man, and not Man for 

THE Sabbath. 

''We have tlie emphatic declaration of tlie Master 
Himself that 'the Sabbath was made for man,' not 
for the Jew only, or for the Hottentot or Arabian, or 
any other one nation or people, but for man uni- 
versally." {The Holy Sahhath,^s.gQ 2^.) Will any 
candid unprejudiced mind read the second chapter of 
Mark, and the fifth chapter of Luke from the thirty- 
sixth verse to the twelfth verse of the sixth chapter, 
and then tell us that the idea Christ wished to con- 
vey to the minds of His hearers when He pro- 
nounced the above words was, that the Jewish Sab- 
bath was made for all men^ and not alone for the 
Jew, when He Himself, before their very eyes, 
broke the Jewish Sabbath, and was here defending 
His disciples for having done so ? The passage, in 



38 THE lord's day, 

connection with its context, proves just the reverse of 
what is intended in the ahove quotation. Clirist liad 
again and again broken the Jewish ceremonial hiw ; 
when He sat at the table with lepers, put His hands 
on a corpse, allowed ceremonially impure women to 
fondle and caress His feet, and His disciples to pre- 
pare food on the Sabbatli da}^ The scribes and 
Pharisees could not believe Him to be the Messiali 
unless He observed the law of Moses. But He gives 
them to understand that tlie kingdom of God was 
coming — a new creation, and not a patch sewed upon 
an old garment; that the Jewish law, like an old 
leatlier bottle, was now worthless when tlie old wine 
was exhausted; but new bottles must be prepared for 
the wine of the New Covenant; and tlicn He tells 
them that "Tlie Sabbath was made for man, and not 
man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is 
Lord also of the Sabbatli.'" Can anything be plainer 
than this? The Sabbath being made for man, and 
He being the Lord of the Sal)bath, as well as of tlie 
whole Mosaic law, has a right to dispose of the Sab- 
bath as He thinks best. If He cliooses to set the 
Jewish Sabbath aside by the establisliment of tlie 
kingdom of heaven. He has a perfect right to do so. 
The very fact that He breaks the Jewish ceremonial 
law is proof tliat He is Lord of that law: and es- 
tablishes His Messiahship, although the short-sighted 
Pharisees could not see it. It is a sad misquotation 
of Scripture that w^ould force this passage to do ser- 
vice in defence of the universality of the Jewish Sab- 
bath. "The Sabbath was made for man," and when 
man's representative shall come in the power and 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 39 

glory of His kingdom, then He will give that true 
rest, of which the Jewish Sabbath is but an imper- 
fect shadow. 

The New Covenant is not a Patch on an Old 

Garment. 

"Let it first be asserted that if the day was in- 
tended for the Jews," says the author of The Holy 
Sabhath, P^gc 25, "then for that very reason it must 
still exist, for they are still the people of the Lord, 
cast off for a time, it is true, but not for ever; for 
they are yet to be brought back into the fold of their 
covenant-keeping God. (Rom. xi. 25.) The cove- 
nant with Israel is an everlastino: covenant. If the 
Sabbath is the sign of that covenant, it, too, must be 
a perpetual sign. Besides, 'he is not a Jew who is 
one outwardly.' If the covenant be transferred to 
believers, and now confirmed unto them as the 
spiritual children of Israel, it must still remain the 
same everlasting covenant, and as such must retain 
the same perpetual sign." That we may know how 
well the above corresponds with the language of 
Scripture, let us turn to Jeremiah xxxi. 31, and 
read, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, 
and with tlie house of Judah; not according to the 
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day 
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of 
the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake,, 
although I was an husband unto them, saith the 
Lord ; but this shall be the covenant that I will make 
with the house of Israel: After those davs, saith the 



40 THE lord's DAT, 

Lord, I will put Aly law in their inward parts, and 
will be their God, and they sliall be My people." 
This propliecy is now being continually fulfilled in 
the regeneration of the Cliristian Gentiles, and has 
no reference to the people called Jews, of the pre- 
sent day. Paul, after quoting these words, adds: 
"In that He saith, a new covenant, He hath made 
the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth 
old is ready to vanish awa3\" (Heb. viii.) And j^et 
the writer tells us that "the covenant made with 
Israel is an everlasting covenant." If lie had told 
us that the new covenant made with the regenerated 
Israel of God, and wliich is now being gathered into 
the spiritual Canaan from among all nations, is an 
"everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of 
David" (Isa. Iv. 3), he would then liave told us what 
is perfectW true. Prophecies to the same effect mny 
be found throughout the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth 
chapters of Isaiah, in Ezek. xxxvi. 25-38, and many 
other portions of the Old Testament, referring to the 
New Covenant, not established with the old typical 
Israel, but with the antitype, the true Israel of God; 
not born of the flesh, but born of God's Holy Spirit 
— proving that "the everlasting covenant "in Christ's 
blood is the covenant made with God's true Israel re- 
deemed from sin, and not the covenant made with the 
typical Israel relieved from Egyptian bondage. 

The author of The Holy Sahhath^ like many other 
well meaning but misinfoi'med theologians, is lost in 
the fog of old Judaism. He thinks that because there 
is a people in the world claiming to be the carnal 
seed of Abraham, and that although Christ told them 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 41 

that thev were of their own father the devil, yet in 
someway "thej^ are still the peo])le of the Lord," 
and then he misquotes Rom. xi. 25 in support of liis 
erroneous view^s. He might as well have quoted the 
next verse, "And so all Israel shall be saved," to 
prove that no Jew could be lost, as to quote this to 
prove that the Jews are still the people of the Lord. 
In Paul's time the temple was still standing, with all 
tlie sacritices and ordinances connected with it. The 
gospel, according to our Lord's command, was first 
to be preached to the Jews, and every possible effort 
was made by the apostles to win them to Christ. 
The "remnant" wliich was to be saved, spoken of by 
the prophets, did embrace Christianity ; some of them, 
as did the Ebionite Jews, conthiuing to observe the 
ceremonies of the Old Covenant in connection with 
faith in Christ. But when the temple was destroyed 
and the sacrifice taken away, old Israel ceased to be 
the typical people of God. Rejecting the prophet 
like unto Moses, (Deut. xviii. 15; Acts iii. 22,) as 
presented to them in the gospel by the preaching of 
tlie apostles, they were spiritually destroyed, and as 
God's people were completely aimihilated, (Acts iii. 
22, 23,) and henceforward were no more heirs of 
God's kingdom, any more than any other Gentile 
nation. Yirtually they became Gentiles, and in^the 
eyes of God occupy the same position to-day that 
the Laplanders and Japanese do. They are not 
heirs of the New Covenant, for they have never en- 
tered into it; and they are not heirs of the Old, for 
they have broken it. There is not a promise in the 
Bible that is not an heritage of the converted Gentile 



42* THE lord's day. 

as mncli as of tlio converted Jew, and without con- 
version to Christ there are no promises to eitlier. To 
the Jew out of Christ there are no other promises 
than tliose to all other membei's of Satan's kingdom, 
that they ^' shall be punished with everlasting destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
gloiT of His power." The assumption that the Jews 
are to return to the literal Jerusalem, and that the 
Old Covenant is to be established with them, is a 
most dangerous error, and contrary to all the teach- 
ings of God's word. Tlie only door to Canaan to- 
day is Christ, and the Jew who enters Christ is as 
much in Canaan in the })ork-killing city of Cincin- 
nati as he would be in Jerusalem ; and should he go 
to Jerusalem with the superstitious idea that by do- 
ing so*he would enter the kingdom of Israel, it would 
be a most positive proof that he was going to Satan 
in search of the kingdom of God. All prophecies 
concerning the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, 
and the gathering of the dispersed among all nations, 
must have their fulfilment in the antitype, and not 
in the type. 

Paul, in the third chapter of Galatians, compares 
the Jewish nation to a school, and the law to a school- 
master. Now, a school-master may write on his black- 
board laws for the use of his pupils while they are in 
his school, but when they pass out of his school they 
are no longer under his laws, and yet the system of 
moralit}^ which the schoolmaster's laws were designed 
to teach thetn, is of infinitely more importance. This 
is the reality, of which the school-master's laws are 
onlj^ the shadow. The school-master prepares his pu- 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 43 

pils for a higlier destiny than that of occup^^ing his 
benches and submitting to his laws; laws which are 
onl}^ intended to prepare them for a liigher code of 
morals than any ever written upon liis blackboard, 
or engraved upon Moses' tables of stone. 

The Jewish Sabbath, then, is a shadow fiiliilled 
wlien the body comes, and tliat l)ody is Christ. 
When He comes, the shadow, like the school-master's 
blackboard laws, is of no further use, and passes 
away. And the apostle says that "the righteousness 
of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit." " For we are the circum- 
cision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice 
in Christ Jesus, and have no conlidence in the flesh." 
Those, then, who have Christ's Spirit, are not bound 
by the law of the school-master. Christ says: "The 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
Sabbath," and in the same way we say: The school 
was made for the pupil, and not the pupil for the 
school. The school-master's law is intended for the 
preparation of his pupil for a higher destiny than 
tliat of occupying a seat in his school ; and when he 
has entered upon that destiny, the morality taught 
by his law, and not the law itself, is binding upon 
liis soul. Hence we say that the Lord's day is a rest 
of the soul, and not a rest of the body alone. It is 
a Sabbath of the soul. The Jewish Sabbath was a 
rest of the body in memory of a rest from Egyptian 
bondage, the liberator being Moses, who led the peo- 
ple out into the desert, but was unable to provide 
them witli food to keep them from perishing with 
hunger. The Christian Lord's day is a rest of the 



44: THE lord's DAY, 

soul from sin, our leader being Christ Jesus, who 
Himself gives that true bread from heaven which 
giveth life unto the world. At the earnest request 
of Moses, God gave the Israelites manna, and with 
it the Jewisli Sabbath; but the true bread and the 
true rest are given, not to typical Israel, but to the 
world; and wdiosoever eateth this bread shall enter 
into rest; that is, have everlasting life. 

Again, we ask, can a Jewish carnal ordinance, 
typical of a spiritual blessing, be transferred from a 
carnal typical kingdom over into a spiritual king- 
dom ? Are not the words of our Lord Jesus Christ 
most decisive upon this point? "That which is boru 
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of tlie 
Spirit is spirit." What a host of disciples Nicode- 
mus has, who cannot distinguish between a Jewish 
Sabbath and the rest of God's spiritual kingdom! 
Can the carnal be transferred to the spiritual, when 
the Scriptures emphatically declare that "flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kindom of God"? But 
supposing the Jewish Sabbatli to be transferred, why 
not transfer a thousand other things? The only evi- 
dence we have that the temple service was done away 
with, is that the shadow is fulfilled in the body — 
Christ. If not, why not transfer the sacrifices of 
sheep and oxen ? Why not transfer circumcision ? 
Some will tell us that we do in baptism, which we 
most emphatically deny; the whole argument in 
favor of it being based upon an erroneous founda- 
tion. Why not transfer the golden altar, with the 
burning of incense, just as the Koman Catholic 
Church has done ? There is certainly as much au- 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 45 

thority for it as there is for transferring the Jewish 
Sabbatli. 

About the only thing that may be said to be trans- 
ferred from tlie Old Testament system to the New 
is the Jewish synagogue, wliich now appears under 
the form of the Christian Church; but even this had 
no foundation in Moses. It undoubtedly owes its 
origin to the prophets, and was probably in some 
way connected with the schools of the prophets, and 
being an outgrowth of the prophetic S3'stem, which 
was nothing more or less than an outline of the gos- 
pel ministry, it has come down to us with very little 
modification. We do not deny that there was a 
shade of the gospel extending back into the Old 
Covenant. There was, and so there is, a shade of 
the Old Covenant extending down into the l^ew, but 
it is onl}' a shade. The reality of both ceases at the 
dividing line. The moral law runs through both, 
just as the life blood of the New Testament, flowing 
from Christ's heart, runs through the whole cere- 
monial law ; but is as different from the law written 
upon tables of stone as the true bread from heaven, 
which giveth life to the world, is different from the 
manna which fell in the desert, giving but temporary 
relief, and disappearing when the bread of Canaan 
supplies its place. 

Now, we take the ground that the Jewish Sabbath, 
like any other strictly Mosaic law, was fulfilled in 
Christ. Christ sa^'s: ''Think not that 1 am come to 
destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to 
destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in 



46 THE lord's day, 

no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." If 
the Jewish Sabbath was a type of Christ, then it 
most certainly must have been fulfilled in Him. 

But we are told that " the Fourth Commandment is 
enjoined on Israel as one of 'the ten words'; and if 
you strike out this one, why not strike out any other, 
or in fact all the rest?" 

We answer, that we do not propose to strike out 
the Fourth Couimandment from the decalogue. We 
consider tlie Fourth Commandment fully as binding 
as any one of the ten. Those who hold the views 
which we are endeavoring to sustain do not base the 
divine authority for the observance of the Lord's day 
upon the Fourth Commandment, but upon the prac- 
tice of the apostles. We must here beg leave to dif- 
fer from them, for we consider the practice of the 
apostles alone as too vague and uncertain; whereas, 
we find a divine command for the observance of the 
Lord's day in the Fourth Commandment. Professor 
Schafifsays: "Tiie former was only a type and pro- 
phecy of the latter. For as this 7iew creation, the 
resurrection of Christ and the founding of His Church, 
is greater than the first creation of the heavens and 
the earth, and brings it to its perfection, so does the 
Christian Sunday transcend the Jewish Sabbath. 
This direct derivation of the Church festival of Sun- 
day from the living centre of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, is certainly the priujitive view of it, and the 
one which best answers to PauUs system of doctrine; 
whereas, the exclusively legal view which bases the 
institution primarily and directly on the Fourth Com- 
mandment, in the first place affords no suflicient ex- 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 47 

planation of the transfer of tlie Sabbath from the 
seventh to the first day of the week; and secondly, 
is utterly irreconcilable with clear declarations of the 
Kew Testament." {^History of Apostolic Churchy 
page 554.) 

Professor Schaff we believe to be right in basing 
the divine authority for the Lord's day ''^primarily 
or directly^^ upon '•Hhe living centre of the gospel 
of Jesus CJirist ;^^ yet we consider the Fourth Com- 
mandment, when eliminated from its typical and pro- 
phetical character, of equally binding authority. 
What is stricken out by the coming of Christ is this 
typical and prophetic character^ leaving the moral 
part of it as binding as any other of the ten. 

But a careful examination of the decalogue will 
give us a better understanding of this matter. The 
preface to the Ten Commandments is included with 
the Commandments, and was written upon the tables 
of stone; and yet, applying it individually, it is lit- 
erally true of but one generation of Hebrews; and 
collectively, of but one nation of all the tribes and 
races of men that have ever lived, or ever will live, 
on our globe; and if applied either individually or 
collectively to the Christian Church to-day, would 
be absolutely false. But in its metaphysical and 
moral sense — or, in other words, in the fulfilment of 
its typical and prophetic character — it is as true to- 
day of every man, woman and child brought under 
gospel influences, as it was literally of each individ- 
ual Hebrew the day that God pronounced those 
words from the top of Sinai. Every professing 
Christian teaches it to his child, and the beginning 



48 THE lord's day, 

of all missionary labor is to teach it to the pagan ; 
yet no one ever dreams that this preface is to be un- 
derstood to-day in its literal sense. The passage of 
the Red Sea by the Israelites is not a type of regen- 
eration, but a type of any influence tliat brings any 
son or daughter of Adam under the reign of the law. 
Were it a type of regeneration, it would annihilate 
that great fundamental doctrine so firmly taught in 
the New Testatent, the perseverance of the saints; 
for a large proportion of the Israelites that came out 
of Egypt perished in the desert, on account of their 
unhdief, (Heb. iii. 16-19); and God will allow no 
truly regenerated soul to perish. But the teaching 
of God's word brings the soul out of pagan darkness, 
and sends it on its way towards regeneration, which 
is accomplished in the reception of Christ, and not 
Moses, as a complete and sufficient Saviour. 

Now, if we eliminate the typical from the Fourth 
Commandment, as we do from the preface, we shall 
liave a commandment as binding as any in the deca- 
logue, to sanctify and keep holy the Lord's day, and 
not the Jewish type. How far the change may affect 
the mode of observing the day may be more difticult 
to determine. The death penalty is certainly abol- 
islied. Preparing a warm dinner, riding to church 
in a carriage or on a horse, when these do not in- 
fringe upon the duties or conscience of others, are 
considered permissible by the majority of professing 
Christians. Perhaps, if we consider that the day is 
one to be fully dedicated to God's service, we will 
not go far astray if we observe the day according 
to the rules we observe in exacting duties from those 



AND KOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 49 

in our employ daring the days of the weelc, and the 
obligations we feel bound to comply with in render- 
ing service to those who employ us. This subject 
wnll, however, be more fully examined when we come 
to discuss the duties and obligations of the Lord's 
day. 

An Incontrovertible Argument. 

When the Jewish Sabbath was instituted, the 
Lord commanded the Israelites not to travel or do 
any work on the seventh day. The command is 
very explicit: " Abide ye every man in his place, let 
no man go out of his place on the seventh day.^' 
(Ex. xvi. 29.) And then we are told, " So the people 
rested on the seventh day." Now, the day tliey went 
out of Egypt, the fifteenth day of the month 
Nisan, would have been a Sabbath day had the 
Jewish Sabbath been instituted before that time. 
On this day we find them packing up in hot haste 
and hurrying out of Egypt; and then the Scriptures 
tell us that in memorv of that dav the Jewish Sab- 
bath was instituted, (Deut. v. 15;) but it was not 
instituted for five wrecks after this event. On the 
fourtli week after this, on the same day of the week, 
and on the same day of the month, we find them 
travelling in the desert. (Ex. xv. 27, and Ex. xvi. 
1.) Now, they either broke the Sabbath on this day, 
or the Jewish Sabbath was not tlien instituted. 

But it will be answered that the fifteenth day of 

the second month was not a Sabbath day, as some of 

the commentators give the month Nisan thirty-one 

days. According to this, the fifteenth day of the 

3 



50 THE LORD^S DAY, 

second month would fall on Tuesday, and not on 
Saturday. But we answer that we can prove beyond 
a shade of a doubt that the fifteenth day fell on a 
Saturday, and consequently the month Nisan must 
liavc contained but twenty-eight days. 

1st, The commentaries do not agree as to the 
number of days ]Sisan contained; some giving 
twenty-nine days, otliers thirty, and others thirty- 
one. But little confidence can be placed where 
there is so much difference of opinion. 

2d, " Tlie Talmudists are generally of tlie opinion 
that the fifteenth day of the second month w^as tlie 
seventh day of the week." — Patrick^ Loioth, etc.^ 
Commentaries on Exodus xvi. 1. 

3d, Any person wdiose mind was not already pre- 
possessed, on reading the sixteenth chapter of Ex- 
odus, would decide that the fifteenth day of the 
second month was the seventh day of the week. 
On that da}^ the Israelites arrive at the wilderness 
of Sin, and murmur because they have no food. 
Then follow six days in ^vhich they are fed on 
manna, and the seventh day is the first Jewish Sab- 
bath. 

4th, Those Israelites who, from any ceremonial 
defilement, could not keep the Passover on the ap- 
pointed day of the first month, were commanded to 
keep it on the same day of the second month. (Num. 
ix. 10, 11.) This law was observed by the nation 
in later years. (2 Chron. xxx. 2-15.) This proves 
that the days of the second month correspond with 
the days of the first month, otherwise the Sabbath 
would not be preceded by the Passover on the 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 51 

occasions which fell on tlie fourteenth day of tlie 
month. 

5th, The whole Jewish clironology was calculated 
from the Passover eve, or the full moon on that eve, 
wlien the Passover lamb was slain. Counting two 
weeks back from this time, brouo^lit the first dav of 
the month, or new moon, on a Sabbatli day. Tliis 
new moon was the first day of the Jewish new year, 
for it was necessary tliat the year sliould begin with 
tlie new and not the full moon ; otherwise the analogy 
of development and decay, between type and anti- 
type would be completely destroyed. Now, count- 
ing forward from the exodus, brought the first day 
of the second month on a new moon, and conse- 
quently a Sabbath; and the fifteentli day on another 
full moon, and also a Sabbatli day. 

So far we have given inferences. Now we will 
give positive proof. 

6tli, Josephus says that tlie Israelites, on leaving 
Egypt, ate of the unleavened bread that they brought 
out of Egypt thirty days: and in the same section 
he calls the feast of unleavened bread "a feast of 
eight days," showing that he includes the day of the 
Passover as the first day of the feast. Now, if we 
count thirty days from the first day of the Passover, 
and including the first day, the last of the thirtj^ will 
be the day that they arrived in the wilderness of Sin. 
This gives twenty-eight days for the month Nisan. 
The unleavened bread is exhausted on a seventh 
day, and they ate manna for the first time on the 
first day of the week, and sixteenth day of the second 



52 THE lord's day, 

month. — Josephus^ Jewish Anthjuiiies ^^ook 2, Chap. 
15, Sec. 1. 

7tli, Now there can be no doubt but the fifteenth 
day of the tirst month was ever observed as a Sab- 
bath day. Josephns says, "On the second day of 
unleavened bread, wliich is tlie sixteentli day of the 
month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, 
for before that day they do not tonch them." — 
Josephns^ Jewish Antiquities^ Book 3, Chap. 10, 
Sec. 5. And from Numbers xxiii. 15, we learn tliat 
this sixteenth day was the morrow after the Sabbath. 

Now, from Leviticus xxiii. 39, we learn that the 
fifteentli day of tlie seventh month was a Sabbath 
day, and that the twenty-second was also a Sabbath 
day, although not one of the seven days of tlie feast 
of tabernacles; and consequently not called a Sab- 
bath because it was a holy day, or great feast day, 
but because it was the regular seventh day Sabbatli. 
Tliis is also confirmed by the feast kept by Solomon 
at the dedication of the Temple, (2 Cliron. vii. 8-11.) 
The people were sent away on the twenty-tliird day 
of the month, or first day of the week, being the 
first day after the conclusion of the feast. Now this 
brings the first Sabbath of the seventh month on the 
first day of the month, or a new moon. Now, having 
established the full moon of the first montli on a 
Sabbatli day, and the new moon of the seventli 
montli on a Sabbath day, we have but to count five 
moons between the two in such a way that the Sab- 
bath will fall on the new moon, or first day of the 
seventh month. Now there is only one way in 
which this can be done; that is, by giving twenty- 



ANB ^OT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 53 

eight days to the first month, and alternately twenty- 
nine and thirty to the otiiers. Thus we have un- 
doubted proof that the Sabbath falls on the fifteenth 
day of the month. It may be objected that th€ fifth 
full moon does not invariably fall on the same day 
of the week. We do not claim that it does, nor is 
it necessary that it should to prove our ground. The 
full moon may have occurred any time during the 
day of the Passover, yet sunsetting of that day would 
be the time from wdiich the Jews would begin to 
count. If we turn to the calendar of the year 1880, 
we will find that five times out of seven, four in suc- 
cession, the full moon of the fifth month falls on 
the same day of the week: 

BEGINNING. ENDING. 

Tuesday, January 27. Tuesday, June 22. 

Wednesday, February 25. Wednesday, July 21. 

Friday, March 26. Friday, August 20. 

Saturday, April 24, Saturday, September 18. 

Tuesday, June 22. Tuesday, November 16. 

Wg acknowledo^c that this is not alwavs the case, 
and this want of uniformity may account for the 
discrepancies existing between the record of John 
and the other evangelists in regard to the time when 
our Lord partook of tlie last Passover with His 
disciples. When a discrepancy of this kind did 
occur, as it might occasionally, we do not know what 
arrangement the Jews had to overcome it. It is 
well known that in making up their years of twelve 
moons, they intercalated a thirteenth month every 
three years; and we presume they made a similar 
arrangement when the fifth moon, after the comple- 



54: THE lord's DAY, 

tion of the first two, did not fall on a Sabbath day, 
although 1 have at present no evidence that they did 
so. If they did, it would prove that the Jewish 
Sabbath was not the seventh day counting from the 
creation. We suspect, however, that these inter- 
calary days, if there were such occasionally in making 
up the Jewish half year, falling, as they necessarily 
must do, on the Feast of New Moons, the two days 
were considered as a sort of double Sabbath. Again, 
we notice that on the first Sabbath of the first, 
second and seventh montlis, the two sacred days 
were combined in one, thus bringing them into most 
intimate relation with each other. (Amos viii. 5.) 

Having now^ proved beyond all doubt tliat the 
fifteenth day of the second month, when the Israelites 
came into the wilderness of Sin, was the seventh day 
of the vveek, we ask, can any honest mind believe 
that the Jewish Sabbath was "an old statute that 
had fallen into disuse"? Is it possible that tlie 
Creator Himself could possibly trample upon His 
own statutes, and lead a whole nation, by cloudy 
pillar and column of fire, to break His laws, and 
then immediately command them to obey them under 
penalty of deatli? No I never! The fact is, that 
on that fifteentli day of the second month, no such 
law had as yet been given. The Israelites travelled 
on that day and broke no law. God's laws, after 
given, are immutable. 

It is easy to understand why the Israelites, fleeing 
from the wrath of a nation enraged by. tlie deatli of 
all its first-born, and cast out of Egypt by a power- 
ful enemy, should spend the Sabbath in travelling; 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 55 

and if true, as some suppose, tJiej passed throiigli 
the Ked Sea on the niglit forming the fore part of a 
seventli day, tliey should again travel in order to 
escape from an enemy burning with revenge, de- 
termined to destroy or enslave them; but that the 
Holy Spirit in the guiding cloud on that quiet day^ 
in the wilderness, while the corpses of their enemies 
lay dead upon the sea shore, should lead them to 
break the holy Sabbath, and then, under penalty of 
deatli, forbid tliem to imitate His example, is per- 
fectly incompreliensible, except upon the ground 
that the Jewish Sabbath was not yet instituted. 
We therefore submit to the consideration of the de- 
fenders of tlie Jewish Sabbath as an institution from 
the beginning of the world, whether the attribution 
of such a fickle, inconsistent character to a God of 
immutable justice is not a greater heresy than the 
denial of the Jewish Sabbath being a law given to 
man from the beginning. 

The Jewish Type Fulfilled in the Christian 

Antitype. 

We have observed that, if the Jewish Sabbath has 
been transferred into the Christian system, we are 
under obligations to keep Saturday instead of Sumlay. 
But that the Jewish Sabbath is not binding upon us, 
is evident from Paul's lano^uao^e to the Colossians, 
''Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in 
drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, 
or of the sabbatli days : which are a shadow of things 
to come; but the body is of Christ." (The body 
which produces the shadow is Christ.) (Col. ii. 16, 



56 THE lord's day, 

17.) Paul is speaking here of the Jewish observance, 
"vvliich lie terms "a shadow." He speaks of cere- 
monies and of tlie Jewisli typical worsliip; bnt these 
have all passed awnj with tlie coining of Christ. 
The antitype has now taken the place of the type. 
ISTow, if we can prove that the Jewish Sabbath was 
a type of Christ, who gives ns the true rest of the 
soul, then it is evident that it passed awa}^ with tlie 
coming of Christ. 

But tliey tell us tluit tlic "sal)batli dnys" mentioned 
in the passage are "Jewisli festivals and holj- 
days," and have no reference to the "seventli day of 
rest." If this is tlie case, let us substitute "lioly- 
davs" for snhhaths in the passage, and see how it 
will read: ''Let no man therefore judge you in meat, 
or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new 
moon, or of the liolydays : which are a shadow of 
thino:s to come." The tautolo<)jy is too evident to 
need further refutation. 

Then again, they tell us that the word is plural, 
sahhaihs^ and means the seventh year Sabbath and 
the Jubilee, whereas the seventh day is called, l)y 
way of pre-eminence, llie Sahhath. {The Holy 
SahhatJi^ pages 36, 37.) This is ccrtaiidy a strange 
way of reasoning. If we say tluit a man is diligent 
in business during the week da3\s, do you understand 
by that that we exclude Mondays and Tuesdaj^s be- 
cause these are pre-eminently working days? If w^e 
say that a man observes the national holidays, do 
you understand us to say that he does not observe 
the Fourth of July, because that is pre eminently the 
national holiday ? The very fact that Paul made no 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 57 

exceptions is superabundant proof tliat he meant all 
tlie Jevvisli Sabbaths. When Paul says the Sabbath 
days, he means all the Sabbatli days, and not one 
Sabbath day out of tliirty, whicli would have been 
the case if evejy seventh day Sabbath had been ex- 
cluded. Wliat one Jewisli Sabbatli was, that all 
Jewish Sabbaths were. They were all types of the 
same antitype, shadows of the same body ; and unless 
there is clear, and positive proof forthcoming that 
the seventli day Sabbath was a type of one thing, 
and the seventh year Sabbatli and the Jubilee types 
of something entirely different, we must be pai'doned 
if we believe that tbey were all fulfilled in the 
coming of Ciirist. No one who has not a pet theory 
to sustain would have ever thought that "sabbaths'' 
in this passage meant monthly and yearly Sabbaths, 
and not all Jewish Sabbaths. When we see good 
men thus easily sliding unconsciously into error, we 
do well to search the Scriptures that we do not like- 
wise depart from the truth. 

The author of The Holy Sahhath says, "It is used 
in both places in connexion with eating or feasting; 
and nothing is said about eating or feasting in the 
sabbatic law." Paul is not speaking of feasting, but 
of taking food in a ritual sense, contrary to our Lord's 
own teachings to His disciples, that it is that which 
cometh out of the man that defileth him. (Matt. xv. 
17-20; Komans xiv. 17.) But if he had turned to 
Lev. xxiii. 2, 3, he would there have found the 
Jewish Sabbath (seventh day) termed a feast^ and 
one of the very ''^ feast days''' which, according to the 
writer, have been fulfilled in the coming of Christ. 



58 THE lord's day, 

But the "sabbaths" spoken of in Col. ii. 15, liave 
no reference to tlie Lord's day. We understand 
that these Jewish Cliristians at tliis time were not 
only observing the Clu'istian Lord's day, bnt also the 
Jewish Sabbath. This was tlie practice of many of 
tlie early Christians. The Ebionite Christians, who 
established themselves in Pella, after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, continued to observe two days in 
the week — the Jewisli Sabbath and the Christian 
Lord's day — for two or tliree centuries after the 
Christian era. It is tliis practice which Paul here 
condemns, and has no reference wliatever to the 
Lord's day, wliich it was proper and i-ight for them 
to observe. 

We now come to a more important argumerft, and 
again quote from The Holy Sabhath, P'^ge 30 : " That 
it was not abolished . . . appears from the fact 
tliat it cannot comply vntli the terms of aholition. 
There is absolutely but one way to abolish a typical 
ordinance, and tliat is to fulfil it. Christ broadly 
asserted the rule when He said, 'T am not come to 
'destroy, but to fulfil.' He arbitrarily and absolutely 
destroj^ed notliing. He onl}^ i-emoved what was 
fulfilled, and because fulfilled. The shadow only 
gives place to the substance, the type to the antitype. 
Thus tlie sacrifices were not destroyed; they only 
gave place to the great atoning saci'ifice of which 
they were shadows. The type is but another form 
of prophecy; and no prophecy can fall short of ful- 
filment. No type can vanish until it reaches the 
antitype. The Sabbath antedating the Mosaic 
economy, and being the prophecy and pledge of 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 59 

future rest, cannot be abolished until it merges into 
the everlasting rest of heaven." 

That a type is a prophecy that cannot be abolished 
until fulfilled in the antitype, is a truth which no one 
can question. But Paul declares that the Jewisii 
shadows or types are fulfilled in the coming of Christ. 
The Jewish Sabbath, in memory of a rest from car- 
nal bondage, is a type of tliat rest of the soul from 
the bondage of sin which our Saviour introduced 
into our world. The writer's great error here is that 
he supposes that " the everlasting rest in heaven " 
does not begin till after the deatli of the body. This 
is quite a prevalent error, and one which distorts 
many plain facts contained in the Scriptures. The 
court of the Jewish tabernacle was a type of child- 
hood life under Christian training and example, un- 
til regeneration. The sanctuary was typical of a 
regenerated priesthood, and the holy of holies of 
heaven itself, and yet the division between the court 
and the "holy places" was much greater than that 
which separated the sanctuary from the holy of ho- 
lies. And a careful student of the Scriptm-es cannot 
but observe that the whole tenor of Scripture indi- 
cates that regeneration, or the "new creation," as 
Paul styles it, is of ten-fold more importance than 
the transit of death. In fact, tlie great burden of 
prophecy relates to the former, while very little is 
said about the latter. Paul's declaration on this 
point is most emphatic: "There remaineth therefore 
a rest (literally, a keeping of the Sabbath) to the 
people of God." (Heb. iv. 9.) An examination of 
the context will show us that this passage refers to a 



60 THE LORD S DAY, 

rest beginning here npon earth, and not confined ex- 
clusively to heaven ; and that we enter it l)j regen- 
eration, and not by death as is usually supposed. It 
would almost appear that theologians had rent God's 
kingdom asunder by tlie awful chasm which they in- 
troduce in the transit of death, of which God's word 
says very little indeed. Prophecies and parables 
relative to God's spiritual kingdom on eartli should 
not be applied to His kingdom in heaven. This is 
the great error that would deprive us of a Sabbath, 
unless we accept the Jewish typical Sabbath-day rest 
of tlie body. The rest symbolized by the rest in 
Canaan, as well as of the seventh year Sabbatli and 
Jubilee being fulfilled in the coming of Christ, we 
are left, according to their view, in a wide vacuum, 
which reaches from the crucifixion of our Lord to 
the morning of the general resurrection, with no 
visible fultilment of the Jewish antitype this side of 
the grave. And yet they tell us that a part of the 
Jewish Sabbaths have been fulfilled. Fulfilled by 
what, pray? 

" There remaineth therefore a Rest for the Peo- 
ple OF God," is not alone a Kest in Heaven, but 
A Pest of Grace Here on Earth. 

Without even making a critical examination of the 
third and fourtli cliapters of Hebrews, and especially 
of the passage, "There remaineth therefore a rest 
for tlie people of God," one would suppose that it 
would be impossible for any person, even for a mo- 
ment, to doubt that Paul is speaking here of a rest 
of the soul that remaineth for the people of God 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 61 

when the Jewish type has been fulfilled in the anti- 
type — Christ, who giveth His people rest from the 
power of sin and from the fear of death. But let 
ns examine the passage carefully, and we cannot but 
be convinced that Paul is speaking of the rest of the 
New Covenant here on eartli. The third chapter 
commences with a comparison of the champions of 
the two covenants, Moses and Christ; one a carnal 
leader and the other a spiritnal guide. Moses is 
presented to us as a servant over a visible temporal 
nation, (house — family,) and Christ as a Son over a 
spiritual kingdom. "Moses verily was faithful in all 
his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things 
which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son 
over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold 
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm 
unto the end." Then follows a quotation from the 
ninety-fifth Psalm, stating the reason why many of 
the Israelites were not permitted to enter the land 
of Canaan. Now, if we are willing to accept the 
idea that the Jordan which separates the desert from 
the land of Canaan is not so much a type of the 
Jordan of death as of tlie Jordan of regeneration, 
we will see at once who were symbolized by those 
whose corpses fell in the desert, and wh}^ they fell 
there. Unbelief, that mighty arm in the hands of 
Satan, destroys them in the desert of Satan's king- 
dom, before they arrive at the point where regenera- 
tion takes place. Once having arrived safely in the 
spiritual kingdom of regeneration, they no longer 
fall by unbelief in the desert, according to our Cal- 
vinistic view of the perseverance of the saints. We 



62 THE lord's day, 

thus see where the shade of the Old Covenant, ex- 
tending down into the New Testament Churcli, con- 
trols the lives and actions of those who have been 
trained under Christian influence from childhood, 
the leadership of Moses ceasing just where religion 
ceases to be felt binding as a duty, and Canaan com- 
mencing where service to God is felt to be a pleas- 
ure. The same reason may be given to da}' why all 
Avho fall short of God's spiritual kingdom must per- 
ish outside of that kingdom. "They cannot enter 
in because of unbelief." But once safely in that 
kingdom here, they have entered into "that rest 
which remaineth for the people of God ;" and they 
must first become the people of God by being drawn 
by His Spirit as were the children of Israel, and 
taught by the old school-master Moses, and become 
members of His kingdom on earth, or they can never 
enter His kingdom hereafter. First under the law, 
then under grace. 

Then in the fourth chapter the analog}^ is still 
continued, showing that that rest towards which 
Moses led ancient Israel was not the true rest, but 
only a type of that rest which Christ gives His peo- 
ple here in this world. The language here is very 
simple indeed: "Let us [us Hebrews, for Paul is 
here addressing his own nation] therefore fear, lest, 
a promise being left us of entering into His rest, 
any of you should seem to come short of it. For 
unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto 
them ; but the word preached did not profit them, 
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 
For we which have believed do enter into rest." 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 63 

[We Cliristians which liave believed do now enter 
tlie rest of the spiritual Canaan.] Will any one 
pretend to tell iis that Paul has only in view the rest 
after death ? By no means. Tliis rest is here, now. 
Believers in Christ Jesns enter into the rest of His 
spiritual kingdom by a rest from sin. The Apostle 
Paul entei-ed this rest when lie became a believer, 
and thousands of others were entering it when he 
penned this epistle, who did not enter heaven for 
many years after. 

Then Paul quotes from David, whose Psalms 
wore written long after the Israelites had entered 
the land of Canaan, to sliow that the true rest did 
not come in Joshua's time, but was still in the fu- 
ture. " For if Jesns [Joshua] had given tliem rest, 
then would he not afterward have spoken of another 
day. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people 
of Gody Then he tells them that as God entered 
into a period of rest after He had completed tlie 
work of creation, so Christ has now entered upon a 
period of rest after the work of redemption. "For 
he that is entered into his rest, he also hatli ceased 
from his own works, as God did from His.*' This 
passage, as can be clearly seen from the context, re- 
fers not only to Christ, but the believer in Christ, 
who has already entered into rest, having "ceased 
from his own y^^orJcs ;^' his own works being the works 
of the law, wliile Christ's own work, the work which 
the Fatlier gave Him to do, -supplies, or gives effi- 
cacy to, the believer's works. The rest here, then, 
is a Rest or Faith, the covenant of works being now 
fulfilled. JesuSj having finished the work of redemp- 



64 THE lord's day, 

tion, has now come into His spiritual Ivingdom. On 
the believer having ceased from the works of the 
law, he enters the spiritual priesthood; that is, he 
now no longer obeys tlie law tlirough fear of pun. 
iohment, but through love to its author, Christ. 

Then follows an exhortation to the Hebrew^s, to 
strive to enter into that spiritual rest. "Let us [us 
Hebrews] labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest 
any man fall after the same example of unbelief." 
If Paul here means the regenerated believing Chris- 
tians, and not the doubting Jews, then he strikes a 
blow at the Calvinistic doctrine of the perseverance 
of the saints, which we cannot admit, as the Scrip- 
tures everywhere teach that those who have fully 
entered upon this rest can no longer fall by unbelief 
in the desert. All falling from grace must be con- 
fined to the covenant of works, and excluded from 
the covenant of faith. (I mean by "covenant of 
works" the covenant of Sinai, which I believe to 
include both typical Israel and its antitype the bap- 
tized children of the Church in the Christian dis- 
pensation, and not the covenant made with Adam, 
Salvation, however, is l^y grace, and not by works, 
under all dispensations. There can be no redemp- 
tion without a Redeemer — "the only lledeeuier of 
God's elect.") 

Nor is this language alone to be found in the 
fourth cha})ter of the Hebrews. The Scriptures are 
full of similar expressions. "Strive to enter in at 
the strait gate," does not mean to enter the gate of 
heaven after death, but the gate of Christ's kingdom 
licre on earth. When Christ says, "I am tlie door," 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 65 

He does not only mean that He is the door of the 
kingdom of glory after death, hut He is the door by 
whicli the believer enters His kingdom of salvation 
liere on eartli ; not tlie door of heaven ; but the door 
of His spiritual fold. "I am tlie true vine," Christ 
says to those wlio were yet under the old covenant, 
some of which would yet be broken away on account 
of nnbelief ; hut those who remained would be purged 
by the word (that is, regenerated), and then bear much 
fruit, not in heaven, but here on earth, in tlie conver- 
sion of the Gentiles. 

This rest is a rest from the works of the law; a 
rest from sin; a rest of grace. As Moses led the 
Israelites to a rest in Canaan, so Christ leads lis to 
the rest of His kingdom here. We must first labor 
in Moses' school, and then rest in Christ's kingdom 
on earth, or we can never rest in heaven, unless w^e 
die in infancy, before having rebelled against known 
light; and even then our salvation is purchased by 
the blood of Christ. It is true that the Israelites 
never enjoyed a complete rest in Canaan. They 
were almost continnally at war, either with the Phil- 
istines within their own land or with foreign powers, 
or engaged in terrible combat with each other; nor 
do we enjoy a complete rest from sin under the new" 
covenant. Sin is in our members; and if he cannot 
control ns with the authority of a master, he will 
show us at least that he only submits as an unruly 
slave to a power stronger than himself; therefore we 
see that the analogy drawn between our present rest 
and that of the Jews in Canaan is perfect in every 
particular. Nevertheless, the rest which Paul tells 



6Q THE lord's day, 

tlie Hebrews "remainetli for the people of God," is 
that rest wliicli Christ promises to those who come 
to Him by faith: "Come unto me, all je that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will giv^e you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 
Man must partake of the tree of life and be healed 
by the medicinal virtueof its leaves before he enters 
the portal of the tomb, or he can never enjoy its 
blessed fruits in "the power of an endless life." 

What Kelation does the Lord's Day bear to the 
Rest of the New^ Covenant? 

The New Covenant rest bears the same relation to 
the Lord's day that tlie rest in Canaan bore to tlie 
Jewisli Sabbath. It is the basis or foundation upon 
which the Lord's day is built. As God rested after 
the work of creation, so Christ rested after the work 
of redemption. Xow, we maintain tiiat the rest from 
the labor of creation was a long period, passing 
through several thousand years; so Christ's rest is a 
period commencing with the morn of His resurrec- 
tion from Joseph's tomb, and ending watli the con- 
summation of all terrestrial affairs. 

But God did not rest from work in tlie full sense 
of the term. He continued to sustain that which 
He had created. Christ says, "My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work." As the Father created the 
world and continued to sustain it, so Christ redeemed 
the world, and now comes in tlie form of the Holy 
Spirit to support and sustain all regenerated believers. 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 67 

Kow, if we wish to ivnow what relation the Lord's 
day bears to the rest of grace which Christ has in- 
troduced, we must first learn what relation the Jew- 
isli Sabl)atli bears to the rest in Canaan, and then 
carry out the analogy, and the whole question will 
become perfectly plain. 

The whole Jewish system consisted in a separation 
of a part, as a symbol, that the whole should be con- 
secrated to the Lord. One nation from among all 
the nations of the eartli was chosen as a symbol of 
all nations. One son, the eldest of the family, was 
chosen as a priest, and to some extent the king or 
ruler of the whole family. (This rule in the case of 
Jacob's family, however, was set aside, most likely, 
on account of sins committed by the eldest son 
against his father, and the tribes of Judah and Levi 
were chosen instead to these offices.) The first fruits 
of their harvest were consecrated to God as a sym- 
bol of the whole harvest being His own property. 
Certain animals were considered by them as holy, 
and certain vessels were supposed, by having been 
passed through a ceremonial purification, to have 
become more holy than others; while all implements 
used in the tabernacle and temple service were con- 
secrated to God as holy. Their own land, above all 
other lands, was in a typical and symbolical sense 
that which truly bore the inappropriate title applied 
to it to-day — " The Holy Laiid.^^ A certain city was 
to them "The Holy City," being a symbol of all 
cities, as well as a type of "that Jerusalem which is 
from above" in the worship of true believers; but 
in her destruction by Titus, for apostasy, she became 



6S THE lord's day, 

a type of tlie destruction of Satan's empire — Great 
Babylon. We also find tliat the fi)'st-born of all cnit- 
tie was also consecrated to God, as a symbol indicat- 
ing that all the flocks of the field were at His ser- 
vice whenever He should demand them. 

Now, in regard to time, one day in seven was con- 
secrated to God as a first-fruits of all their time, in 
memory of tliat flrst day of the new period in which 
God rested from the creation of the world; this day 
being, if we may so express it, an outgrowth of that 
long period of rest. It was also a memory of the 
first day of freedom from Egyptian bondage, and, 
as might be expected, ended tlie last day of the Old 
Covenant; that day in which the world's Creator, 
liaving now taken upon Himself the work of becom- 
ing the world's Redeemer, was laid away in the cold 
and silent grave. This Sabbath day was also a type 
of tliat " first day " of the more gloiious rest which 
follows it — tlie first day of man's redemption. 

Now, if we follow up the same cliain of evidences, 
we will learn from tlie Jewish law what day observed 
l)y the Jews was in the end to be developed into the 
Lord's day, and by the manner in which they observed 
that day, together with the prophecies, we learn how 
the Lord's day should be observed by us. 

The Jewish Pentecost a Germ of the Lord's Day. 

As the giving of the manna in the desert was so 
intimately connected with the institution of the Jew- 
ish Sabbath, we naturally look to its cessation for at 
least one of the roots which in the end-shall develop 
into the Lord's day. From Joshua v. 10-12, we 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 69 

learn tliat the Israelites kept the Passover in the 
plains of Jericlio on the fourteenth day of the month 
Nisan, and tliat on the morrow, or Sabbath day, they 
ate of the old corn of the land, and that on the next 
day, corresponding with our Lord's day, the manna 
ceased. This was the day on which, in future years, 
the wave offering was to be presented. Just forty- 
nine days from that day was to be the day of Pen- 
tecost. 

]^ow, as tlio Jewisii Sabbath was instituted in com- 
memoration of the exodus from Egyptian bondage, 
and at the giving of tlie manna, after the unleavened 
bread they brought witli them out of Egypt had 
been exhausted : so we find the Pentecost establislied 
in the land of Canaan, which was but a type of the 
true rest which should come in the future, although 
the unbelieving Jews of Paul's time thouglit that it 
was that true rest, in commemoration of that rest 
which they had entered fifty days before. The Jew- 
ish Sabbatli being the seventh day rest, the Pentecost 
could be observed only yearly; but even in this 
yearly observance we see it clearly indicated as an 
outgrowth of tlie rest which they now enjoyed in 
Canaan. IN^ow, if we observe carefully the two days 
which form the feast of Pentecost, the sixteenth day 
of the month Kisan and the eighth of the month 
Sivan, we cannot fail to see their close relationship 
to the two covenants. (Lev. xxiii. 9-21.) Tbe first 
was connected with the Passover, a day on wljich all 
leaven w^as excluded, and the first-fruits were conse- 
ci"ated to God, not in tlie loaf, but in the sheaf; but 
on the latter day, not one sheaf, but two loaves, were 



70 THE lord's day, 

to be presented, baked with leaven, and consequently 
just tlie reverse of the feast of the Passover. Every 
thinof connected with tlie Passover indicates an un- 
finished work, while everytliing connected with the 
Pentecost denotes a complete work. Kow, as the 
Jewish Sabbath belongs to the Mosaic system insti- 
tuted in the desert, and tlie Pentecost falling not 
upon the last but the first day of the week, and fore- 
shadowing the light or leavened bread of a better 
rest, we consider that this day could be none other 
than a foretaste of the Christian Lord's day. In the 
Pentecost we find the very opposite of the Passover. 
The latter was a day of exclusion, quiet, separation; 
and the other, it is true, a day of exclusion from ser- 
vile work, but yet a day of activity, of permeation- 
One bearino; the sad remembrance of the death of 
the first-born in Egypt, the otlier of new life in the 
land of Canaan; one symbolizing the unleavened 
bread of sorrow and atfiiction — of weariness and 
hunger in the desert, the other of tlie light bread of 
joy and peace in their own liome in Canaan; one a 
symbol of death, tlie other a symbol of life. 

Now, if our reasoning is correct, we can have no 
doubt that the day of Pentecost vvas a basis of tlie 
Christian's Lord's day, rather than the Jewish Sab- 
bath, just as the Jewish synagogue was the basis of 
the Christian church, rather than the temple at Jer- 
usalem. In both these cases the shadow or typo 
passed away, while the germs are retained in their 
full development in the Christian system. If such 
is the case, then the laws concerning the Pentecost 
liave an intimate connection with the Lord's day. 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 71 

We read : ''And ye shall have an holy convocation ; 
ye shall do no servile work therein." "And thou 
shalt keep a feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, 
with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand, 
which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, ac_ 
cording as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. And 
thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and 
thy son, and tliy daughter, and thy man-servant and 
thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy 
gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the 
widow, that are among you, in the place which the 
Lord thy God hath chosen." (Lev. xxiii. 21 ; Num. 
xxviii. 26; Deut. xvi. 9-12.) Is it a strange thing, 
then, if we find similar precepts in the New Testa- 
ment in regard to the Lord's day? Paul says: 
"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I 
have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so 
do ye. Upon the first day of the week let ever}^ 
one of you lay -by hioi in store as God hath pros- 
]pered him." (1 Cor. xvi. 1-2.) 

Most commentators suppose that the law was 
given from Sinai on the day of Pentecost. Even 
Mr. Atwater, in his admirable work on the Jewish 
Tabernacle, says: "Fifty days after the exodus from 
Egypt, Moses received on Sinai the two tables ot 
stone on which God had inscribed the Ten Com- 
mandments."- — 2^/ie Sacred Tabernacle^ P^gG 2. Is 
there any proof of this ? Does Exodus xix. 1 mean 
the first day of the third month, or does it mean the 
same day of the month that the Israelites left Egypt ? 
In either case, it would be the first day of the week; 
but the former gives too little, and the latter too 



72 THE lord's day 



much. But no matter; the Pentecost was an out- 
growth of tlie rest in Canaan, and was not observed 
in tlie desert, and had no other connection with it 
tlian being given there in anticipation, as tlie hiw^ 
concerning cities of refuge, and similar laws, to be 
enforced only in their own land. Pentecost did not 
exist at the time the law was given. That people 
should confound the giving of the law in the desert 
with the rejoicing over the first-fruits of Canaan, is 
so far out of place that we wonder that any one 
should ever have imagined such a thing. 

As a temperance question, it has been maintained 
by the defenders of total abstinence that the Jewish 
law concerning the feast of the Passover required 
the entire expulsion of not only leavened bread, but 
of anything that partook of the nature of leaven; 
consequently of all fermented wine, and, therefore 
Christ on the night of His betrayal partook with 
His disciples of the unfermented jyicc of the grape, 
and not of fermented wine; that the apostles must 
have followed His example, and only later ages have 
departed from it. On the other hand, it has been 
maintained by those who take a different view, that 
there can be no doubt that the early Corinthian 
church used fermented wine, and Panl does not cen- 
sure them because they used fermented wine, but 
because they got drunk on it. Now the facts of the 
case are just these: that the Jews used no leaven or 
fermented wine at the Passover, but they used both 
on the day of Pentecost, and the apostles continued 
to do so. The present practice of using unleavened 
bread, then, at our communion table is unwarranted 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. tS 

by the practice of the apostles. As the Passover 
lamb was tlie symbol of death, so now Ifglit bread is 
a symbol of life, Christ, the true Bread, giving ns 
life by His resurrection from the grave. The un- 
leavened bread brouglit out of Egypt by the Israel- 
ites could not give them life, even in the desert, but 
was soon exhausted, leaving them on the point of 
perishing of famine in the desert; therefore the 
Bread of Life, the true Bread from heaven, sliould. 
be symbolized by something more palatable than 
that which Israel carried out of Egypt. In defence 
of the cause of temperance, let it be said that no 
harm can come -from a trutliful statement of the case. 
If, on account of temptation, it be thought best to 
depart from the early practice of the apostles, there 
can be no harm in doing so, as long as we have tlie 
sanction of the apostles themselves. In 1 Cor. viii. 
and X. 19-33, we find Paul countermanding a decree 
given by the first' council at Jerusalem, in regard to 
meats consecrated to idols, and yet he says: "If 
meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh 
while the world standeth, lest I make my brotlier to 
oifend." May God give us all strength of mind and 
will to use no intoxicating liquor, or anything else, 
that may cause a weak brother to stumble and fall ! 
Now, if we are correct thus far, that Pentecost 
was really a germ of the Lord's day, then we must 
expect to find in the first Pentecost wliich Christ's 
people held after His ascension, and after having 
brought them into the spiritual Canaan, a confirma- 
tion of the Lord's day, then and there instituted in 
all its plenitude, in commemoration of the morning 
4 



7i -The lord's day, 

of His resurrection, when He delivered them from 
the spiritual bondage of sin. As the day of Pente- 
cost had been observed up to this time as a season of 
returning thanks to God for His bounties, and for 
the deliverance of His ancient people from Egypt, 
(Deut. xvi. ]2,) we ma}^ expect to iind the apostles 
celei)rating the day in its true spiritual sense. We 
find a full record of this event in the second chapter 
of the Acts of the Apostles, and cannot doubt but 
it is an example for the members of God's spiritual 
kingdom through all coming time. 

No consecrated temple was needed for this service, 
as the Jewish synagogue had now culminated in the 
Christian church. No chosen family like that of 
Levi officiated there, nor first-born anointed with con- 
secrated oil and clothed witli symbolical vestments, 
but the first-fruits of Christ's ministi*y, anointed with 
the Holy Spirit descending visibly upon them in the 
form of cloven (not single) tongues like as of fire, to 
show the world that thc}^ had a double mission to 
perform: 1st, to proclaim the law, whose end is 
death; and 2d, to present the remedy — the gospel, 
which gives life. 

We behold here no flocks of cattle, sheep or birds ; 
no altar with its flames of fire and columns of black 
smoke; no costly array of smoking incense; no 
wonderful ceremonies or peculiar forms of dress, but 
a powerful sermon, backed up by proofs from the 
Old Testament Scriptures, converting three thousand 
Old Covenant Jews, not awav from the Mosaic 
ritual, not into modern Christians, free from all 
Jewish prejudices, but to faith in a risen Saviour, 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 75 

who was undoubtedly tlie Messiah they had long 
been looking for. 

This Lord's day was spent in God's service as no 
Jewish Sabbath had ever been. It was not so mncli 
a Sabbath of bodily observances, a rest from manual 
labor, as a Sabbatli of the soul. 

The Chkistian Lord's Day an Outgrowth of the 
New Covenant System. 

Li Christ's Sabbatli of grace "no costly temple or 
temple service is required. The blue dome of heaven 
is God's temple, while towering mountains and roll- 
ing hills are its arches; carpeted by the green sward, 
and lighted, not by seven golden candlesticks, but 
by the seven prismatic colours of light, streaming 
from the radiant face of the king of day; all nature 
rolls up one universal anthem of praise to the great 
Creator, proclaiming that not in temples made with 
hands, either in Mount Gerizim or at Jerusalem, do 
the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit 
and in truth. In the New Covenant no commands 
are given to any Solomon about the building of 
temples. God's spiritual temple is universal, and 
yet a synagogue or church is required where men 
can congregate for the study of God's word. We 
know this from the practice of the apostles and early 
Christians, although there are given no directions 
about building it. It is not the Jewish temple trans- 
ferred into tlie New Covenant system, but the germ 
which existed in the Jewish synagogue that is now 
developed into the Christian church. 

In the New Testament dispensation nothing is 



7G THE lord's day, 

said about a chosen priesthood initiated into tlie 
duties of his office by a ceremonial purification and 
the anointing of oil, nevertlieless Christ's spiritual 
kingdom is a priesthood, "a spiritual house, a holy 
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices;" "a royal 
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people," (1 Pet. 
ii. 5-9,) out of which, as an outgrowth of the Chris- 
tian system, has come the Christian ministry, cor- 
responding with the Christian church and the Lord's 
day; and yet no one wnll pretend to say that the 
Christian ministry is nothing more than the Lcvitical 
priesthood transferred to the Christian system. Such 
an assumption would at once be met with ridicule. 
Nor will any one for a moment admit that the Chris- 
tian ministry is less honorable, or the position less 
sacred, than that of the Jewish priest. In fact, the 
antitype is infinitely superior to the type. The very 
first-fruits of the "holy nation" should be consecrated 
to God for this purpose. Not the spiritually halt 
and maimed, but the man of firm character and noble 
purpose, in wdiose eye beams the fire of intellect, 
whose mind, thoroughly trained in the requisite in- 
stitutions for imparting human knowdedge, shall 
have obtained all the acquirements possessed by the 
apostles, and then profoundly imbued with God's 
Holy Spirit, and baptized with the living water of 
life — God's living word — he may be able to proclaim, 
with power from on high, the gospel plan of salva- 
tion to a ruined world. Oh, this mission is infinitely 
superior, and infinitely more holy, than that of a 
typical Jewish priest offering typical sacrifices on a 
typical altar in the temple of ancient Jerusalem! 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 7T 

As in the New Covenant all space is holy to God, 
and all regenerated believers are a spiritual priest- 
hood, so all time should be consecrated to His service. 
All time is holy, and should be considered a holy rest 
from sin, that true "Sabbath which remaineth for 
the people of God" after the Jewish Sabbath and 
the rest in material Canaan have all been taken away. 
And yet, as an outgrowth of the Christian system, 
there is one day in seven, the Christian Lord's day, 
which is especially holy, a day to be observed above 
all others by His people, as consecrated to His 
service, and in which they are particulai'ly required 
to engage in the duties pertaining to His Church and 
ministry. This day is not the Jewish Sabbath trans- 
ferred to the New Covenant, but a new day, chosen 
for the purpose, and in itself an outgrovv^th of the 
Christian system. This day is not so much a rest of 
the body as it is a rest of the soul. Now, just as the 
Christian church is not a transfer of the Jewish 
temple, but is peculiar to the New Covenant; just 
as the Christian ministry is not a transfer of the 
Levitical priesthood, but is a part of the Christian 
dispensation ; so the Lord's day is not a transfer of 
the Jewish Sabbath, but a day originating out of the 
necessities of the New Testament dispensation. 

The Lord's Day Moke Holy than the Jewish 
Sabbath. 

We would not detract one iota from the proper 
observance of the Lord's day. What the Scriptures 
demand, that is our duty to teach, and as far as 
possible to enforce. But the Lord's day is the Sab- 



78 THE lord's day, 

bath of tlie soul, and as such the sonl of tlie believer 
slioiild be so absorbed in the duties of tlie day, that 
the day will be observed and sanctified by him with- 
out the necessity of any outward command to obey 
it. In fact, there is no command in the New Testa- 
ment to observe the day. Such a commandment 
would be out of place in the Now Testament economy. 
(See Jer. xxxi. 33-34.) Let the State enforce what 
laws it sees proper to keep miscreant nominal Chris- 
tians, Jews and infidels out of miscliicf, but he whose 
soul is baptized in Christ needs no sucli laws. Let 
tlie State adhere to the morality of the Old Testa- 
ment, but our duty as Christian believers is to the 
morality of the New Covenant. We live not under 
the fear of the law, but above the law. People who 
are under the law would run into anarchy were the 
law to be abolished, but the morality of the New^ 
Covenant Christian would undei'go no change were 
all laws to be annihilated. 

But the question may be asked, "If the Lord's day 
is to be o])served with as much attention and respect 
as was the Jewish Sabbath, wh}' defend the view 
that a new day has been chosen, and not the Jewish 
.Sabbath transferred? What is to be stained?" We 
answer. We gain the truth. We present the teach- 
ings of the Bible. AVe destroy net only this error, 
but others that may grow^ out of it. We show more 
distinctly the lelations existing between the two 
Covenants, and make it more difiicult for men 
to confound the one with the other. 

To the true believer, then, the Lord's day is a Sab- 
bath of the soul. He becomes so absorbed in the 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 79 

gospel and its privileges and duties that he is com- 
pletely drawn away from all desire to prosecute his 
own business or pleasure on tliat day. But the 
Cliurch lias not alone to deal with Pentecostal be- 
lievers. Her. influence extends over a large class, 
who, to a certain extent, yet belong to that shade of 
the Old Covenant which still, exists along witli the 
New. We mean children and young people, and 
perhaps some older j)ersons, who, like the Hebrews 
that Paul wrote to, are still in the desert, travelling, 
it is true, towards Canaan, but wlio are nevertheless 
exposed to the danger of falling tli rough unbelief 
and perisliing in tiie desert. For all such, we need 
still to proclaim the law written upon stone: "Re- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it lioly," not in its 
typical character as a remembrance of Israel's de- 
parture from the land of bondage, but in its pro- 
plietical character as a remembrance of Him who 
died and rose again for them, and that through be- 
lief in Him they may enter into rest and be saved 
from their sins. 

The Jewish Sabbath a Symbol or Death; the 
Lord's Day a Symbol of Lifp:. 
We now come to another aspect of the case. The 
Jewish Sabbath Avas a terrible memento of deatli — 
death in Egypt. The destroying angel was at work 
on that terrible night when Israel left Egypt, and 
the Jewish Sabbath was instituted as a monument 
of the sad events of that night. In every house 
there was a corpse, and that corpse was the first- 
born of every family ; literally, the first-born of the 



80 THE lord's day, 

nation. The Egyptians, doubtless observing the 
same rules which prevailed among the early Hebrews, 
considered the first-born as the consecrated priest- 
hood of tlie nation, and a symbol of the entire nation 
itself. If sncli wns the case, then Pharaoh saw in 
tlie death of the first-born the condemnation of tlie 
entire nation to death. And the language of Scrip- 
ture would ratlier bear out this view: "And tlie 
Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they 
might send them out of the land in haste: for they 
said, We he all dead ???e??." (Ex. xii. 33.) "In 
every house was a coipse," and that corpse spake 
louder than words could possibly do of the doom of 
the nation. Friends and relatives gathered in awful 
sorrow around their dead, not so much, perhaps, in 
mourning for the dead as in dread anticipation of 
their own doom. The day which followed that 
terrible night indicated to the Hebrews an escape 
from death, but an escape that was not consummated 
until they had passed the Kcd Sea and were safe on 
their way to Canaan ; and which is not spiritually 
confirmed to us until we have passed the red sea 
close by the cross of Christ. 

The last Jewish Sabbath, consummating the period 
before the Chi'istian era, was also a terrible memento 
of death. The First born of Creation, the only 
begotten Son of God, lay in the cold embrace of 
death in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. 
In His sad fate His disciples read their own con- 
demnation. If He were an impostor, as they now 
supposed, all their inheritance in Israel was destroyed ; 
and all their expectations lay buried with Christ in 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 81 

His tomb. Nor was this sad night and day of mourn- 
ing alone confined to the twelve disciples. All who 
had looked to Him as their Messiah were in monrn- 
ing. The fate of the carnal Jewish nation was 
sealed. Tlie carnal first-born lay in the tomb in 
Egypt on that day which was the origin of the 
Jewish Sabbath, and on this last Sabbath day the 
carnal liope of Israel had perished for ever. During 
that long day, Christ's friends, if tliey met at all, 
only met to tell one another of tlieir great sorrow. 
But, as is natural to suppose, a Sabbath whose origin 
was in death could but end in deatli. The first-born 
of tlie Egyptian was an appropriate symbol of the 
whole Adamic nature, and the First-born of God, 
having assumed that nature, dies in it. 

But the history of that terrible night in Egypt is 
not an old story. It is a terrible reality, wliose 
solemn shadow falls upon us now. Egypt is all 
around us to-day. The solemn hover of the wings 
of the deatli angel is wafted to us by every breeze. 
The world is perishing around us. The mother, as 
she sits by tlie cradle of her dying first-born watch- 
ing for its last breath; the daughter soothing the 
fevered brow of a dear father while undergoing the 
agony of the last hour; the husband clinging with 
the grasp of despair to the loving wife as he sees her 
borne away in the jaws of the terrible monster; a 
sister in awful agony watching for the last gasp of a 
loved brother-^are all passing through that solemn 
night of Egypt's profoundest darkness. And docs 
not the fate of these dear ones, as they are torn away 
from our embrace, reveal to us our own death 



82 THE lord's day, 

sentence? Who can look upon tlie face of the dying 
and not read tliere the sentence of liis own condem- 
nation 'i And who can stand amono^ tlie dead, in the 
midst of Eg3^ptian darkness, and not repeat tlie echo, 
"We be all dead men"? 

But the first Christian Lord's day, made glorious 
by tlie I'csun-ection of Jesus Christ from the grave, 
is a symbol of life. Life from God, through the 
grave on that day, and confirmed to the Church of 
the First-born on the day of Pentecost in the descent 
of Cod's Holy Spirit, gives to the world a day of 
spirittial rejoicing the exact counterpart of the Old 
Covenant Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath belongs 
to the law, whose beginning and end is death. The 
Lord's day belongs to the gospel, whose beginning 
is life eternal. The Jewish Sabbath ends with the 
death of the Son of man. The Lord's day begins 
with the resurrection of the Son of God. The Jew- 
ish Sabbath ends with the Son of David, and, in 
fact, the last of David's carnal seed reposing in the 
tomb. The Lord's day begins with David's risen 
Lord, and the day of Pentecost confirms Him upon 
His throne in tlie hearts of all true believers. Our 
Lord's day is not a feast of unleavened bread, eaten 
in hot haste and bui*ning desire to escape from a 
carnal bondage, but a feast of light bread, in com- 
memoration of eternal liberty through Jesus Christ, 
the only begotten Son of God. Our Lord's day is 
not a symbol of the gloom and terror of the grave, 
but of life — life eternal. 

Judaism, from beginning to end, contained but 
the lifeless form of a carnal Christ. If any Jew, 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 83 

from Abraliam to Christ, ev^er obtained eternal life, 
it was only tlirongii a risen and £j;lori(iod Saviour, a 
reflection of whose image was carried back into tlie 
Old Covenant by the writings of the prophets and 
the images of the ceremonial law, just as the moon 
and planets reflect tlie light of the sun into the dark- 
ness of the Tiight. 13nt now the night has passed 
and the day has come. ^' Awake, thou that sleepcst, 
and Christ shall give thee light.'' 

The Jewish Sabbath a Symbol of Darkness; the 
Lord's Day a Symbol of Light. 

It has been observed that the Jewish Sabbath 
commenced with the setting of the sun on Friday 
niojht, and ended with tiie settino^ of the sun on 
Saturday night. It is evident, then, that the Jewish 
Sabbath commenced with the night, the first half 
being night and the latter half day. If we turn to 
the history of creation, as recorded in the first chapter 
of Genesis, we will read that "the evening and the 
morning" w^ere the "first day," "second day," etc. 
This idea corresponds beautifully with the Old and 
New Covenants. The dark tempestuous night of 
Egypt was illumined only by the angry flames of 
Sinai. After the dark clouds of Egypt and the 
desert have passed away, the bright stars of Canaan 
break forth in the light of its kings and prophets, 
reflecting back the image of the coming Sun of 
Kigliteousness; and even when the Sun rises and the 
'New Covenant comes in, there is still a shadow of 
the Old Covenant accompanying every object that 
intercepts the Sun's rays. It w'as in memory of a 



84: THE lord's day, 

dark and terrible night, when Israel went out of 
Egj^pt, that resulted in tlie institution of the Jewish 
Sabbath. It was amid the wail of a nation mourn- 
ing for its first-born that they packed up their goods 
and hastened away, lest the avenging angel of death 
should overtake them also. And then the morning 
finds them wandering in the desert; homeless, sad, 
and dreary, not knowing whitlier they were going. 
It was also in the niglit time that they passed through 
the Hed Sea, and on the morning they stood upon 
those barren sliores and belield tlic corpses of their 
enemies wafted to the shore by the impetuosity of 
the overwhelming waves; and many commentators 
suppose — from an inference to be derived from Deut. 
v. 15, wlien the Angel of tlie Covenant in the fiery 
pillar ceases to be their leader and now becomes 
tlieir protector, tliey having been driven into the sea 
by Pharaoh's army, just as Christ was forced into 
His grave at the commencement of a Jewisli Sab- 
bath by His enemies — tliat Israel passed througli the 
Red Sea on a Sabbath day also. 

The Christian Lord's day commences with the 
morning. It was early morn wlien Mary came to 
the Saviour's tomb. It was early in the morning 
when the news of a Saviour's resurrection broke upon 
the ears of His astonished disciples. Glorious morn- 
ing, tliat gave the world a Saviour! A morning 
whose light, reflected back into the depths of Old 
Testament prophecy, i*eveals tlie mystery hidden 
from the ages under shadow and symbol, and now 
clearly brought to view by the gospel ; a morning 
revealing to our race the life and immortality which 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 85 

is the heritage of the righteous; a morning to be 
closed by no night to those who are sons of God by 
faith, but at the same time revealing to the wicked 
a night more terrible tlian the darkness of Egypt. 
Kow, if the Old Testament night was a long period, 
symbolized by the Jewish Sabbath, then the morn- 
ing of the New Covenant is a long rest, most ap- 
propriately symbolized by tlie Lord's day. Away 
back in the middle of the Jewish night, one of the 
disciples of Moses, groaning under the heavy burden 
of the law, exclaims: "Watchman, what of the 
night? Watchman, what of the niglit?" (Isa. xxi. 
11, 12.) And then a voice comes back through the 
still darkness: "The morning cometh;" and tlien, 
as though echoing from tlie profoundest depths of 
Egyptian dungeons, to seal the destiny of tliose who 
love tlie "darkness rather than the light," and who 
"will not come to the liglit lest their deeds should 
be reproved," comes tlie solemn announcement, 
"and also the night,'''' — night of eternal wrath to 
all who reject Him who is the Light of the world. 

But when the morning had come, and the Jewish 
nation, with all its ordinances, was about to crumble 
into dust, one of the "sons of the morning" cries, 
"Love is the fulfilling of the law; . . . awake 
out of sleep; . . . the night is far spent, the 
day is at hand." (Rom. xiii. 10-14.) And then he 
says to those who arc in Christ, " Ye are all the 
children of light and the children of the day : we 
are not of the night, nor of darkness." (1 Thess. v. 
1-7.) 



8(> THE lord's day, 

The Pkoper Observance of the Lord's Day may 
BE Learned from the Prophets as well as from 
THE Mosaic Law. 

As has already been observedj in tlie gospel as 
presented to us in the New Testament, we find no 
rules for the observance of the Lord's day. Such 
rules would be out of place in the gospel. Christ, 
while teaching those who were still under the old 
dispensation, enjoined the most strict observance of 
the moral law, including the Fourth Commandment. 
TJiis we observe in the answer given to the lawyer 
who came to Him tempting llim (Matt. xxii. 34-40), 
as well as elsewhere; and the plain inference is that 
this commandment, made free from the typical, was 
to extend down into the new dispensation. Besides 
this, all we have in the New Testament relative to the 
matter is the example given us by the apostles; and 
even this example is not ahvays to be relied on, the 
apostles themselves varying as they were influenced 
more or less by Judaism, as we find in the case of 
Peter, as recorded in the tenth chapter of the Acts, 
refusing even at that late date to associate with 
Gentiles and partake of their food, giving as a reason 
that nothing unclean had ever passed his mouth, 
although his Lord had told him, ten. or twelve years 
before this, that it is not that which entereth the 
man that defileth him. Now we have already seen 
that the Mosaic economy, consisting of types and 
shadows, has been fulfilled in the New Covenant, 
and in it the Jewish Sabbath, as a type of the rest 
of grace " which remaineth for the people of God." 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 87 

Bat Moses and the New Testament do not comprise 
the wliole of the Bible. Tliere were two witnesses 
before the Kew Testament was in existence, which 
were often quoted by our Lord — " Moses and tlie 
propliets"-— and as one' of tlicse has been fulfilled, 
we naturally turn to the other. The prophets, then, 
being r.n introduction to the gospel, must, if care- 
fully examined, afford us all the rules we require to 
know on this subject; and as we are especially told 
that the I^ew Covenant Ciiurch is " built upon the 
foundation of tlie apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
Himself (in whom Moses is fulfilled) being the chief 
corner stone." (Eph. ii. 20-22.) But as these pro- 
phecies were given to the Jewish or typical kingdom, 
and, as their name (prophecies) indicates, refer to 
the spiritual kingdom of Christ, they must be taken 
in a spiritual and not in a material sense. Let us, 
then, examine in detail the prophecies relative to the 
Lord's day. One of the most important of these is 
to be found in Jeremiah xvii. 19-27: 

^'Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and stand in' 
the gate of the children of the people, whereby the 
kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go 
out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem : and say unto 
them, Llear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of 
Judali, and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem, that enter in by these gfites; thus saith the 
Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden 
on the Sabbath daj^, nor bring it in by the gates of 
Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your 
houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, 
but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your 



88 THE lord's day, 

fathers. But tliej' obeyed not, neither inclined their 
ear, but made their necks stiff, that they might not 
liear, nor receive insti-uction. And it shall come to 
pass, if 3'e diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, 
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city 
on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day to 
do no work therein; then shall there enter into the 
gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon tlie 
throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, 
they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the 
inluibitants of Jerusalem: and tliis city shall remain 
for ever. And they shall come from the cities of 
Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and 
from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and 
from the mountains, and from the south, bringing 
burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, 
and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto 
the house of the Lord. But if ye will not hearken 
unto me to hallow^ the Sabbath day, and not to bear 
a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem 
on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the 
gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jeru- 
salem, and it shall not be quenched." 

Kow here let us note several things which do not 
appear on the surface of this passage to a superficial 
reader : 

1st, This is not merely an historical sketch of 
events transpiring in the days of Josiah and Jehoia- 
kini, kings of Judah. If it were, it would be of but 
little value to us. In fact, it would not be what 
God's word claims to be, a communication from God 
to fallen man concerning his soul's salvation, and 



AND NOT THE JEWISH &ABBATH. 89 

which deeply concerns every member of the linman 
family throngliont all ages. 

2cl, It is a prophecy^ and, as a prophecy, given 
ostensibly to a typical nation is virtually to be fnl- 
lilled in all the nations of the world, of which that 
nation is a type, according to God's own words to 
Jeremiali: "I ordained thee a prophet unto the 
nations^ ''See, I liave this day set tliee over the 
nations and over the kingdoms^ to root out and to 
destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." 
(Jer. i. 5 and 10.) This prophecy, then, lias its ful- 
tihnent in the spiritual kingdom of Christ, and not 
in tlie material type. 

3d, As the language is addressed to the type to 
be fulfilled in the antitype, the Jerusalem spoken of 
is "that Jerusalem which is from above," and not 
the material Jerusalem, and the "Sabbatli day" re- 
ferred to is the Lord's day, and the " burdens" which 
are not to be carried into the spiritual Jerusalem on 
the Lord's day are^ not packages of rice and sugar, 
but mental burdens — worldly affairs — all thoughts 
of worldly business and worldly cares. 

4th, That view which would make this prophecy 
to be fulfilled literallv in the future in the restoration 
of ancient Jerusalem betrays such ignora-nce of the 
prophecies that it requires no refutation. Ancient 
Jerusalem is not to be rebuilt. The type having 
been fulfilled in the antitype, has accomplished its 
purpose, and has passed away for ever. 

5th, This prophecy is having its f ultilment to-day. 
The "princes sitting upon the throne of David" are 
those who occupy high positions in the gospel king- 



90 THE lord's DAT, 

dom; Jerusalem being none otlier than the gospel 
Church. 

A similar passage is to be found in Isaiah Ivi. 1-8 : 
"Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do 
justice; for My salvation is near to come, and My 
righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man 
that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold 
on it; tliat keopeth the Sabbath from polluting it, 
and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither 
let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself 
to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly 
separated tne from His people: neither let the eunuch 
say. Behold, I am a di'y tree. For thus saith the 
Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and 
choose the things that please Me, and take hold of 
My covenant, Even unto them will I give in Mine 
house and within My walls a place and a nam.e better 
than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an 
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the 
sous of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, 
to serve Him-, and to love the name of the Lord, to 
be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath 
from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; 
even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and 
make them joyful in My house of prayer: their buj'nt 
offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon 
Mine altar: for Mine house shall be called a house 
of prayer for all peopled 

Isaiah, above all other prophets, has been most 
appropriately termed the evangelical prophet; the 
latter portion of his prophecies, especially, referring 
to the gathering of the spiritual seed of Abraham 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 91 

(not the carnal Jews) from among all nations. This 
passage, then, like tlie former from Jeremiah, is to 
he interpreted as referring to the proper observance 
of the Lord's day, altliongli ostensibly addi*essed to 
the type, as are a majority of the prophecies, to be 
fnltilled in the antitype. Tliis view is still more 
clearly seen in the following passage: " Foi' as the 
new lieavens and the new eai'th [tlie gospel kingdom] 
which I will make, sliall remain befoi-e Me, saith the 
Lord, so shall youir seed and your name remain. 
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon 
to another, and from one Sabbatli to another, sliall 
all flesh come to worsliip before Me, saith the Lord." 
(Isa. Ixvi. 22, 23.) 

And still more decisive is the following: "If thou 
tnrn away thy^ foot from the Sabbath, from doing 
tliy pleasure on My lioly day: and call the Sabbath 
a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and shalt 
honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; 
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I 
will cause thee to ride upon ^the high places of the 
earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob; for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isa. Iviii. 
13, 14.) Here, then, we have in the prophecies of 
the Old Testament, being an introduction to the 
gospel, all the commands necessary for the observ- 
ance of the Lord's day; commands which would not 
be proper in the gospel itself, which deals with a 
purely spiritual kingdom. JSot discarding Moses, 
but considering him as purely typical of the gospel, 
we will find in the prophecies all that we need to 



92 THE lord's DAT, 

know concerning the dedication of one-seventh of 
our time to the Lord, and just how this time should 
be observed. 

We have, then, as a guide to the proper observance 
of tlie Lord's day: 

1st, The Fourth Conimandraent ; not to be taken 
in its material typical sense as given to the Jews 
throngli Moses, but in its application to the antitype 
as given through Christ to the world. 

2d, The commands given to the Jews in regard to 
the ohsei'vance of the Pentecost ; also to be taken in 
a spiritual and not in a material sense. 

3d, All commands given hy the prophets concern- 
ing the Jewish Sahhath, having passed through the 
prism of the cross, and applied to tlie Lord's day in 
tlic light of the New Covenant. 

4th, The practice of the apostles. 

All scriptural prophecies become perfectly plain 
if we remember the simple rule of substituting the 
name of the antitype in the place of the type. Let 
us try that rule on some of the prophecies relative to 
the Lord's day, and witness the result. Take, for 
instance, the passage in Isaiah just referred to, Isa. 
Iviii. 13. 

The Proper Observance of the Lord's Day. 

1st, We are not to turn from the day hy seeking 
our own pleasure. 

All our business affairs are to be laid aside on this 
day. We ma}^ legitimately occupy the six interven. 
ing days in the pursuit of worldly treasure necessary 
for our own comfort and that of our families, but 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 93 

this day is especially to be dedicated to God's work, 
and not to our own. On this day our own fortunes, 
or, in other words, our own petty kingdoms, are at 
rest. We are not to think of them this day, but to 
spend tlie day in laboring for the advancement of 
God's kingdom, and the building up of His cause in 
the world. On the Lord's day the merchant should 
be as faithful in the Lord's field of labor as he has 
been in his store or counting-room during the other 
six days of the week, and the clerk must be as 
diligently engaged in the Lord's service as he has 
been during the six days in his employer's business. 
It is not to be a day of idleness, but of intense activity; 
in fact, we should be more active on this day than on 
others, for we serve a higher master, and engage in 
a far more noble employment. We well know that 
if a book-keeper or clerk were engaged during five 
days of the week in the employ of an ordinary mer- 
chant, and on the sixth in the employ of some rich 
nobleman, he would be at least as faithful on the 
sixth day as he would on any of the five, and the 
probability is tliat he would be even more industrious 
on that day; but the reverse is almost the general 
custom in regard to the Lord's day. Even the great 
mass of professing Christians rise late on the Lord's 
day; and with the exception of spending an hour or 
so in the Sunday-school and listening to one or two 
sermons, they spend the day in idleness, looking upon 
it as a rest day for the body, while many use the 
day as a time for making a sort of review of their 
own personal duties during the week that has passed, 
or in laying plans for the coming week, none of 



94: THE lord's day, 

wliich are in accordance with the requirements of 
tliese prophecies. 

The Mosaic law required that no beast should be 
compelled to labor on the Jewish Sabbath; but no- 
thing in these prophecies indicates an}' such prohi- 
bition in regard to tlie Lord's day. Not only every 
beast, but every successful instrument tliat can be 
brought to do faithful service for God's kingdon), is 
to be used for tliat purpose. There is nothing said 
liere about remaining stationary in one place, as was 
the case in the wilderness; but we can go in and out 
of the gates of Jerusalem on that day, provided we 
carry no worldly mental burdens. Nothing is said 
about a Sabbath day's journey, which it appears was 
permitted at a later age in the history of Judah; 
but we may go ten Sabbath days' journeys, or even 
twenty, if by so doing we can "visit the fatherless 
and the widow in fheir atHiction," or aid some erring 
brother in an effort to keep liimself" unspotted from 
the world," or to bring a lost soul to Christ. The 
proph.ecy is not to be understood in tlie typical as a 
prohibition to bear material burdens tlirougii the 
material gates of the typical Jerusalem ; but in tlie 
New Covenant rest we are to "bear one another's 
burdens, and so fulfil the law [not of Moses, but] of 
Christ." On this day our pleasure is not to be 
in doing our "own ways," or speaking our "own 
worvls," but in delii!:htino; ourselves in the Lord. 

But the bearing of burdens on the Lord's day 
throuo-h the ""ates of the antitvpical Jerusalem has 
a deeper significance still. It means that no mental 
worldly burdens are to be carried into the Lord's 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 95 

lioiise on that day. It means that on tlie morn of 
that day we are to so consecrate onr liearts to God by 
prayer, that we sliall go to His liouse fully prepared 
to perfor.u the duties which He requires of us; for 
we cannot do His work and (;arry our own baskets 
full of provisions too. And oh ! how many burdens 
are cari'ied every Lord's day Uhrougli the cliurch 
door into God's presence ! Here is a man with 
a big I'oll under his arm. He arranged with his 
architect on Saturday to build him a new house, and 
he has brought the plan with him, and as soon as 
seated he unrolls it and commences makino^ chancres 
and improvements. He does not hear a single word 
of the sermon. Here cotnes another with a whole 
wheelbarrow full of troubles. And a lady, too. Her 
mother-in-law has slandered her, and she can think 
of nothing else. The minister's labor is in vain, as 
far as she is concerned. Several young men and 
young women carry heavy parcels labelled "love 
affairs," and the water of life flows all around them, 
but they catch none of it, for tlieir vessels are already 
fllled. A medical student has brought a patient with 
him, and is tryino^ hard to study the nature of his 
disease, but learns nothing about the nature and cure 
of that terrible malady, tlie leprosy of sin. This 
man has brought his farm witli liim, but learns no- 
thing about the "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away. A judge is busy with a 
case — a peculiar casa — and is busy in considering 
what decision he should render, and although having 
an ear on each side of his head, he hears not the text, 
" Render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and 



96 THE lord's day, 

unto God the things that are God's.'' There are 
some, strange to saj, who conie empty-handed, and 
go awaj heavily loaded. One has a bundle of criti- 
cisms. He has caught up vvliat he supposes to be 
the weak points in his minister's sermon, but he has 
allowed all the rest to pass by like the waters of the 
Jordan on their way to the Dead Sea. How truly 
Christ said of such, "Having ears, ye hear not." 
And another boasts, as he passes out of the church 
door, that he came to hear the gospel, but heard no- 
thing but the minister eulogizing himself. What a 
bundle he carries ! And how different the case 
would have been if he had closed his eyes to the 
carnal, and opened his eyes to the spiritual ! Tlie 
Jews saw a Samaritan with a devil, wliere others 
saw the Son of God. "Having ears, they hear not; 
eyes, they see not." One carries away the choir 
but has left the spirit of the hymns that were sung 
Another rejoices in an impression of the costumes 
the hats, and ornaments; while one youth bears 
away an album of portraits. Only here and there 
one who came in "the Spirit on the Lord's day," 
has done the Lord's work and received the Lord's 
reward — an enlightened understanding and a puri- 
fied conscience. These, liaving washed themselves 
at the fountain of gospel grace, are now prepared to 
carry the water of life to the perishing. 

2d, We are not to speak our own words. We do 
not find any prohibition in the Mosaic law for re- 
straining a man to the use of certain words on the 
Jewish Sabbath day. But here we find a restriction 
as to what language we are to use on the Lord's day. 






AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 9t 

In this, the Christian Lord's day is more strict than 
tlie Jewish Sabbath. Our language on this day is 
to be tliat of prayer and praise ; or, in otlier words, 
to be employed strictly in God's service, in whatever 
way we can make onrselves instrumental in building 
up His kingdom, whether by reading and expounding 
His word, or by our conversation leading sinners to 
Christ, and making His merits and beauties known 
to otliers. As our wliole time on this day belongs 
to the Lord, so our whole conversation should be 
about His business. Wliat would we say of a clerk 
who should employ tlie whole, or even a part, of his 
employer's time in talking to his employer's cus- 
tomers about some private business of his own ? 
Would not his emploj'er soon begin to suspect him 
to be a rival, and dismiss him from his employment? 
The clerk's conversation with his employer's cus- 
tomers must be about his employer's business. In 
tlie history of Israel we read of a prince who stood 
by tlie side of the gate of Jerusalem, and whenever 
any one came in with any important business for his 
father the king, he commenced talking to them '•^ his 
own words,"' instead of delighting himself with that 
which was to the king's interest : and we are told that 
"Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel;' 
and not long after this we learn that he excited the 
people and raised a rebellion, placing himself at the 
head of it, wdiere he ignominiously lost his life. 

3d, We are to call the Lord's day a delight. We 
all know the pleasure we experience when we are 
successful in some business enterprise. How cheer- 
ing it is to shake hands with some old friend who is 



98 tHE lord's day, 

engaged in some business enterprise, and lieai* liim 
exclaim, in response to oar inquiry in regard to his 
worldly success, '* Oh, my business is very good now; 
I have all 1 can do." How happy he appears ! 
Even liis health appears to lie benefited by his suc- 
cess, and no doubt his wife and children are joyful 
partakers of his prosperity. But on the otlier hand, 
how often do we hear, in answer to some interroga- 
tory touching a man wlio looks sad and troubled, 
'^Oh, business is so dull; times are so liard." How 
sad and dejected he appears ! Even his lioalth fails 
in consequence, and dyspepsia and nervousness seize 
upon him. His wife and children also bear the 
same haggard look. But let business revive. Let 
the times become easy and money plenty, and he is 
tilled with life and contentment. Joy overspreads 
his countenance, and he becomes happy. Every day 
we have evidence of the intei'est men take in the 
success of their own affairs. 

Now, if we love 'our friends, we cannot but be in. 
tcrested in their welfare. If they are successful, we 
rejoice with them; and if they are unfortunate, we 
feel that their misfortunes concern us. But suppose 
that we are in the employ of one of these friends — 
that we are engaged by him as a clerk, for instance — 
would we not take a much deeper interest in his 
success? If a clerk is honest, loves his employer, 
and becomes deeply interested in his employer's 
success in business, he will sympathize with him in 
his trials and participate in his joys. But suppose 
we find a merchant looking sad and troubled, and 
we inquire the cause of liis affliction, and he should 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 90 

answer, "Business is good, times are e'dsy. but mj 
men do not attend to my business; they do not care 
anything about it; they neglect my customers; they 
take no interest in my success." '' Why, how is 
tliis?" we inquire. ''Do you not pay them regular 
salaries for attending to your business?" He an- 
swers: "Yes, I pay them every week, but they have 
so many little private affairs of their own to attend 
to, and that occupy their whole attention, that they 
actually have no time or inclination to attend to my 
affairs. When a customer comes in, they at once 
seize upon him, and draw his attention away from 
the purchase of mj goods to their own private af- 
fairs, and then they appear to be vexed when I 
suggest to them that my business is going to ruin." 
What w^ould we tliink of such a lot of employees 
as these ? Would we not say tliat they were a lot 
of knaves, and should be harshly dealt with ? But 
do we not too often do the same thing when we 
allow our thoughts, and perhaps our conversation, 
to be centred on our own ])etty affairs on the Lord's 
day, and not upon the Lord's important transactions 
on His own day, chosen above all othei's to be spent 
in His own service? God's world is o-oino; to ruin. 
He lias placed us iiere to attend to it. He has given 
ns this day to be employed in bringing the world to 
a knowledge of a Saviour. He pays us for our ser- 
vices; and if we occupy this precious time in thinking 
our own thoughts, speaking our own worJs, and at- 
tending to our own dolls and tops and otlu-r mundane 
playthings, are we not robbing God just as much as 



100 THE lord's day, 

the clerk who occupies his employer's time in at- 
tending to business of his own ? 

4t]i, We are to esteem it as a holy day. Holy 
means sacred. We are to value it as a sacred day» 
a rich treasure — more valuable than all other days; 
a day to be devoted to the Lord, by reading His 
word, making ourselves acquainted with His law 
and gospel, and holding spiritual communion with 
Him. We know what interest a son or daughter, 
who is aw^ay from home, takes in the day that he is 
permitted to visit his father's house, and converse 
with his brothers and sisters, and especially with his 
beloved parents, about those things which are of 
mutual interest to both. This, to him, is a sacred 
day. He looks forward to it with deep interest, and 
longs for its coming. How much more, then, should 
we long for the coming of the Lord's day, a day ex- 
clusively devoted to spiritual communion with our 
heavenly Father, and to be occupied in His service? 

5th, We are to call it honorable. That is, we are 
to honor the day; respect it as a binding obligation. 
Wherever you find a man who has no respect for the 
Lord's day, raark that man. Brand him as you 
would a thief. If that man can get his hand into 
your till, unknown to you, he will steal your money. 
We repeat., that he is already a thief, and worse than 
a thief. He robs God. God has placed him in this 
beautiful world, and given him a ho'.ne, and food and 
clothing, and He exacts one-seventh of his time in 
pay, and he refuses to pay it. He is living in God's 
world, and refuses to pay his rent. If he will rob 
God, he will rob you. If he will steal God's time. 



AND NOT TflE JEWISH SABBATH. 10 1 

lie will steal yonr money. Watch that man. Bc- 
M'are of tlie Sabbath-breaker. There is fio crime in 
the decaloo^ne that a Sabbath-breaker will not com- 
mit, if he has an opportunity and imagines that it will 
not be known to men. Trust no habitual Sabbath- 
breaker. It is an unfailing test of character. If he 
refuses to congregate where God's law is studied, he 
will most certainly trample that law under his feet. 
The man who will not recognize the laws of his 
country is a traitor, and only wants the opportunity 
to engage in open rebellion. The man who will 
not give that portion of time which God requires to 
the study and teaching of His laws, will most as- 
suredly beti'ay you if you trust him. The man who 
wall not devote a portion of his time to the interests 
of God's kingdom, imperfect as the service may be, 
is a villain. He is destitute of all true moralit3\ 
Shun him as you would the plague. 

God demands one-seventh of our time, — -not as a 
gift, but as a right; He being our landlord, and we 
the tenants. We owe it to God just as much as wc 
owe to our neighbor the money we borrowed from 
him; and we owe it until it is paid. "Remember 
the Sabbath day" is a due-bill for value received, 
and no man who refuses to pay it can be an honest 
man. During the six days before, we received from 
our heavenly Father the manna, and our shoes and 
clothing are not waxen old ; and now, on the Lord's 
day morning, God asks us to pay the bill by em- 
ploying the day in His service. If any one refuses 
to pay, we again say. Brand him as a thief and a 
robber. Sliould any Sabbath-breaker complain that 



102 THE lord's day 

this is harsh language, we answer him, Pay your 
honest debts, and then we will recognize you as an 
honest man. You owe God one-seventli of all your 
time; pay it by hallowing tliis day. 

6th, Then, in these prophecies, we find rich pro- 
mises to all those who hallow the Lord's day. '^Thoic 
shall delight thyself in the Lord^ See that miser- 
able, cowardly, sneaking debtor, who will not pay 
his lionest debts, as he hides around the corner to 
avoid meeting his creditor in the street. He takes 
no delio^lit in his creditor. How can he ^ His crcdi- 
tor's presence is odious to hitn. His own conscience 
convicts liim of robbery. We cannot delight our- 
selves in tlie Lord, if we rob Him of tliat which is 
His just due. But the man who pays his debts can 
face liis creditor with a smile and enjoy his company; 
and just so, the man who promptly pays to God 
what he owes Him, can rejoice in the Lord his God 
with a clean conscience and a pure heart. Pay the 
Lord what thou owest Him, and then thou shalt de- 
light thyself in Him. This is what is meant when the 
Scriptures say, "The pure in heart shall see God." 

Then the Lord's promise comes to him who fulfils 
this obligation. "I will cause thee to ride upon the 
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the 
heritage of Jacob thy father." He that has been 
faithful over a few things shall be nuide ruler over 
manj' things. Our time on earth is but a state of 
probation to test our character as to the destinies of 
eternit}^ If we are honest before God, and pay Him 
all our just dues, then He will take us into His em- 
ployment in that world of which Christ's Sabbath 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 103 

of rest here on earth is but a foretaste. The "heri- 
tage of Jacob" includes all the blessings of the New 
Covenant. This is to be our food for ever, even the 
fulness of God in Christ. 

The Lord's Day a Day of Intense AcTivrrY. 

The Lord's day is not a day to be spent in idleness 
and sloth. Some people imagine that if they abstain 
from all manual labor on this day, they have com- 
plied with all that the day demands. They sleep a 
part of the day, and a part of it they occupy in tell- 
ing idle talcs or reading works of fiction, and the 
result is that the day is completely squandered, and 
no good results from it. 

The Lord's day was given by Christ to the world, 
and is intimately connected with the world's redemp- 
tion. It is not a day of idleness, but a day of work, 
of busy, active life. It is the symbol of the dawning 
of a new era in tlie liistory of our race. The old 
Jewish Sabbath was but a shadow of the Lord's day, 
and was given by Moses to the Jews, and not to the 
world. It was a day that God hallowed in remem- 
brance of the creation of the world, and was given 
to the Jews as a rest from bondage, and was but a 
carnal rest, the last day of wiiich the carnal nature 
of Christ rested in the grave. The dawn of the 
resurrection morning was a new era in the history 
of our world. When Christ was laid in the grave, 
the redemption of the world was complete, as far as 
Christ's atonement was concerned; but now the 
world was to be saved by the preaching of that 
atonement. The foundation had been laid, and now 



104 THE lord's day, 

the building was to be erected. Wlieii God laid the 
foundations of the earth " the morning stars sang 
together;" and is it reasonable to suppose that they 
were silent wlien Christ laid tlie foundation for 
man's redemption I Oh I that first Lord's day was a 
busy day, both in heaven and upon earth ! It was 
certainly a busy day among the angels, nor was it a 
less busy day among the disciples. Christ's friends 
did not by any means spend that day on wliich He 
arose from the dead in idleness. We read that cer- 
tain women came "early in the morniniy," "as it 
began to dawn;" and tlien they were commanded to 
"go quickly^'' and tell tlie disciples that He was 
risen from tlie dead. "And they departed quickly 
from the sepulchre;" and Peter came 7'imnwg. And 
then we read of two of them who went into the 
country, wiiere they meet witli their risen Lord, and 
that same night they return to inform the other dis- 
ciples. From early dawn till late that night we 
find them bus3^ Most assuredly that was not an 
idle day to the disciples, whatever it may have been 
to others. 

Nor was the day of Pentecost one of less activity. 
Peter preached a thrilling sermon on that day, that 
resulted in the conversion of three thousand persons. 
This was no mean day's work ; and if there is any 
truth in the views of our Baptist friends, that these 
converts on that day receiv^ed an immersion of their 
bodies in water at the hands of the disciples, we 
may rest assured that those disciples were exces- 
sively tired when night came. That was anything 
but a Jewish Sabbath to them. 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 105 

The Lord's day is not a day of bodily rest. A 
world is to be saved by the preaching of the gospel, 
and God has appointed this day as the day on which 
it is to be done, and it is not going to be done by 
resting on this day. The word Sabbath applied to 
this day is a misnomer. It is a day of work — hard 
work, and of intense activity. If every professing 
Christian would work as liard on the Lord's day for 
God's kingdom as he does on other daj's for liimself, 
within ten years the world would be turned upside 
down. It is a grievous error into which many 
Christians have fallen, of supposing that they keep 
the day holy w^hen they spend it in idleness. Tliere 
is work — a world of work— to be done on this day, 
and not an hour of it can be lost without committing 
sin. We repeat, that it is not a Sabbath iu the sense 
of bodily rest. The apostles never called it by that 
name. They ever designated it as the ''^Lord's day," 
or the '^ first day of the w^eek," either of which indi- 
cates the verj" reverse of the Jewish Sabbath. It is 
not a Jewish Sabbatli, but a Lord's day of busy, 
active work. The early Christians did not call it 
the Sabbath. It is a modern error that has given 
the name to a day just the reverse of what the ety- 
mology of the word means. We do not approve of 
changing tlie name given to the day by the apostles 
to one belonging to another day pertaining to the 
system of Moses. If any change is made, let it be 
one that is appropriate, introduced by usage, and not 
by a false taste. 



1 06 THE lord's day, 



"SUNDAV" AN APPROPRIATE NAME FOR THE LORd's 

DAY. 

We observe that many good men, especially min- 
isters of the gospel and officers of clmrches, are care- 
ful to call tlie Lord's day " the Sabbath." Ask them 
why they do so, and they will answer you that the 
name LorcVs day is more appropriate, but less con- 
venient, and but little used; that Sunday is a pagan 
nan)e, tlie day formerly being dedicated by heathen 
nations to tlie worsliip of the sun, and consequently 
to call the day Sunday favors pagan idolatry. 

This reasoning would l)e valid did we still con- 
sider the day as consecrated to the sun; but Paul's 
reasoning in regard to consecrated meats (Rom. xiv. ; 
1 Cor. viii.) utterly annihilates this argument. Meat 
consecrated to an idol may be eaten by a Christian 
witli perfect impunity, if eaten to satisfy hunger, 
and not to worship the idol ; unless some weak bro- 
ther (and alas! how many weak brothers there are, 
who persist in being weak and puny, rather than 
drink deep of the gospel medicine !) sliould through 
his ignorance be caused to stumble. 

Sunday^ we say, is a proper name. We care no- 
tlung about the origin of the word. It may have 
been pagan before it was baptized by Christian 
nsage. Cornelius was a pagan, yet when he was 
baptized a Christian, no one ever thought of cliang- 
ing his name. The changing of names in religious 
rites is a practice of the Roman Catholic Church, 
and is practised on all ecclesiastics, from Pope Leo 
XIII. down to Fra Benito and Sister Agnes, who 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 107 

sweep the floor ami wliip the dogs out of the most 
liumble conveot. Why, then, slionld we ape the 
Romish Church in this ? We lionor no idol by 
eating consecrated meat when we are liungrj, and 
we do no dishonor by calling the Lord's day Sunday^ 
unless we entertain in our minds the pagan super- 
stition of consecrating the day to the worship ot the 
sun-god. 

The Jewish Sabbath was in memory of a niglil — 
of tlie hours consecrated to rest. The period to 
which it most appropriately belongs is tliat period 
conmiencing witli the night on which the paschal 
lamb was slain in Egypt, and it ended with the 
rising sun on the morning of our Saviour's resur- 
rection. The Cliristian Sunday begins with the 
rising sun — most appropriate symbol of light. It 
commenced on the morning when the "Sun of 
Rigliteousness" arose from tlie grave, and, scattering 
th<3 dark shadows of tlie long Jewish night, ascended 
triumphant in the full splendor of tlie New^ Covenant, 
to give light, not only to the Jew, but to all wdio sit 
in heathen darkness. Sunda}', then, is a proper name 
to designate a day whose refulgent light already en- 
circles the globe, and before whose dissolving beams 
the ruins of Judaism and Paganism are fast crum- 
bling back to dust. 

Sunday^ a day whose morning light found in the 
sepulchre of a risen Saviour nothing but His grave 
clothes, appropriate symbols of all carnal shadows, 
to be for ever buried in the grave of the Old Cove- 
nant, while tlie kingdom of light, illumined by the 
celestial Sun, fears no night and no grave. 



108 THE lord's day, 

Sunday^ a day whose noonday splendors clicer the 
pilgrim in liis onward march towards tlie celestial 
Avorld, nndimmed by any cloud of sin, unwearied by 
any labor in tlie Lord's service, as he presses forward 
"toward the marl< for the prize of the liigh calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." 

Sunday, a day whose evening shadows entrance 
the believer's eye as he beholds the golden tow^ers 
and battlements and pearly gates of the New Jeru- 
salem, all aglow with the refulgent splendors of the 
Sun of Righteousness. May we all spend an eternity 
in His light! 

Sunday, a day of active Christian effort here, 
whose evening glories will fade into the eternal day 
when all the people of God shall be gathered home 
to enjoy the blessings of His kingdom for ever. 
"And in the city of the living God we shall behold, 
with the eyes of the immortal nature, the light which 
beams forth from the eternal throne." "And the 
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to 
shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and 
the Lamb is the liglit thereof. And the nations of 
them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." 
"And there shall be no night there; and they need 
no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord 
God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever 
and ever." 

Review and Conclusion. 

The foregoing article was prepared for publication 
over four years ago (being intended as part of a 
larger work), and has been given to the Review 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 109 

with but few unimportant clianges. Of all the works 
on this subject, defending the views here opposed, 
that which appears to contain the most solid reason- 
ing is by Prof. Fair bairn, of Glasgow. {Fairhairn^ s 
''Typology;' Vol. IL, Sec. 3.) But the defects of 
his system are so evident that a few quotations will 
serve to show, we think, beyond the sliadow of a doubt, 
that the plan we have presented is the riglit one. 

Dr. Fairbairn maintains that a seventh day of rest 
was given to the world at tlie creation, and that it 
was "engrafted" into the Jewisli system, which gave 
it a "symbolical and tj^pical value," and that from 
tlience "the original ordinance" was transferred to 
the Christian system, with a new day and a new 
name, and yet he contends for "a strict and literal 
obligation of tlie Fourth Commandment." 

We have nowhei'c maintained tliat God i^ave the 
world no weekly rest until He gave tlie manna to 
tlie Israelites in the desert. We have admitted that, 
from inference, we understand that God's preachers 
of righteousness did teach the people to observe a 
weekly rest. We think there can be no doubt about 
this, and we should consider it a great error to say 
that the antediluvian world had no seventh day rest. 
We can form no idea of the vast amount of know- 
ledge that some of these preachers may have pos- 
sessed, when we- consider that father and son as- 
sociated with each other through a period of several 
hundred years, and imparted their wisdom and know- 
ledge to each other ; while the Angel of the Cove- 
nant walked with them as their Teacher and Guide, 
instructinoj them in divine truths, much as He did 



110 THE lord's DAY, 

with llis disciples at a later period on the liills of 
Galilee. To preach righteousness was to preach the 
moral law, and that law incUides the Fonrtli Com- 
mandment — tlie dedication of one-seventh of our time 
to God's service. But what we contend for is that 
the Jewish Type was not given to the world. Tlie 
Jewisli type was given to tlie Jew, and to the Jew 
only, with the exception of the prosel>'te or stranger 
within his gate. It was never given to the Gentile 
world. Dr. Fairbairn says of the Sabbath : "Having 
been engrafted into a religion so purely symbolical 
as the Mosaic, it was unavoidable that the bodily 
rest enjoined in it should acquire, like mU the other 
outward thino^s belontriui^ to the i'elia:i()n, a syinboli- 
cal and typical value." (^Typology ^ Vol. II., p. 126.) 
Until this engrafting process was accomplished, it 
was neither type nor symbol to any Gentile nation. 
Dr. Fairbairn also confirms this when he admits (p. 
129), "so little depended upon the exact day, that ou 
the occasion of renewing the Sabbatical institution 
in the wilderness, the Lord seems to have made the 
weekly series run from the first giving of the manna. 
His example, therefore, in the work of creation, was 
intended merely to fix the relative proportion be- 
tween tlie days of ordinary labor and those of sacred 
rest, and with that view is appealed to in the law." 
In this we believe Dr. Fairbairn to be right. We 
certainly can obtain no inference from Genesis ii. 3, 
that bears the faintest shadow of a command. The 
only inference we derive from this passage is, that 
God blessed and sanctified the seventh pei'iod of 
creation by making it the period in which the great 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. Hi 

drain a of man's earthly career was to be enacted — 
liis fall and redemption; otherwise it would have 
been stated as it was of the other six daj^s: "the 
evening and the morning" were the seventh day; but 
the "evening" was yet to come in the Ohl Testament 
dispensation, and the "morning" of the New Cove- 
nant was far away in the distance of future ages. 
Nov is the seventh day anywhere called a Sabbath 
until the Jewish type was given to the Israelites. 
Until a written law was given, God's commands 
were taught hy word of mouth, b}' men whom He 
called for this purpose, as He did Abraham. The 
patriarchal age was probably to some extent typical 
of that work which is now in progress in missionary 
fields, where Christian ministers (preachers of right- 
eousness) are busily engaged in instructing unlettered 
men by word of mouth — imparting an imperfect 
knowledge of that law which their children will be 
able at some future time to read for themselves. 
Those who have labored as missionaries in the foreign 
field can understand this perfectly well. 

In regard to Col. ii. 16, Dr. Fairbairn presents 
precisely the same view that we have given, which is 
undoubtedly the correct one. He says : " The apostle 
discharges Christians from the observance of Sab- 
bath days, not in a false and improper sense, but in 
that very sense in which they were shadows of good 
things to come, placing them on a footing, in this 
respect, with distinctions of meat and drink. It is 
needless to say here that certain feast days of the 
Jews, being withdrawn from a common to a sacred 
use, were called Sabbaths, and that the apostle alludes 



112 THE lord's day, 

exclusively to these. There can be no doubt, indeed, 
that they were so called, and are also included liere, 
but not to tlie exclusion of the seventh-day Sabbath, 
whicli, from the very nature of the case, was the one 
most likely to be thought of by the Colossinns. Un- 
less it had been expressly excepted, we must in fair- 
ness suppose it to have been at least equally intended 
witli the others." {Typology^ Vol. II., p. 125.) Can 
anything be plainer than this? The Jewish Sabbath 
was abolished, and could by no manner of means be 
transferred to the Christian system. Again, D\\ 
Fairbairn says: ^'Wlien another state of things was 
introduced, it became necessary to assign to such 
Sabbath — the Jewish seventh day of I'cst — a place 
among the things that were done away, and so far to 
(change the ordinance itself as to transfer it to a 
different day, and even call it by a new name. But 
as baptisFn in the Spirit is Christ's circumcision, so 
the Lord's day is His Sabbath ; and to be in the 
Spirit on that day, worshipping and serving Him in 
the truth of His gospel, is to take up the yoke of the 
Fourth Commandment." {Typology ^\>A^^.) Here, 
in a nut-shell, we have precisely the ground we ad- 
vocate. The Jewish Sabbath is abolished. The 
^' ordinance itself" becomes a new day — the Christian 
Lord's day. Ko one will for a moment pretend to 
say that Christ's circumcision by the Spirit is a 
transfer of Jewish carnal circumcision into the New 
Covenant system. Then why contend that the Lord's 
da}' is a transfer of the Jewish Sabbath? There is 
no transfer about it. The one is a type of the other, 
and as such cannot be transferred. And yet Dr. 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 113 

Fairbairn maintains that tlie Fourth Commandment 
is to be observed literally. Why, we doubt very 
much if the good Doctor ev^er observed it literally 
himself — keeping Saturday instead of Sunday. The 
Fourth Commandment is no more to be understood 
literally than is the preface to tlie Ten Command- 
ments, or the promise affixed to the Fifth, to be under- 
stood literally. "I am the Lord thy God, which 
brought thee [up out of tlie land of Egypt,'" is ap- 
plicable to every baptized child whom God lias chosen 
from the bondage of the great heathen world (the 
true Egypt), by giving him his birth in a Christian 
land, of Christian parents, and with Christian privi- 
leges, in accordance with the covenant made with 
Abraham, that He would bless the infants of his 
spiritual seed. This is an election by birthright 
which no man can deny, and yet not the election to 
eternal life in Christ frona before the foundation of 
the world. ''That thy days may be long in the land 
(Canaan) which the Lord thy God giveth thee,*' does 
not mean that every child who is obedient to his 
Christian parents shall be entitled to a homestead in 
modern Palestine, but that he shall be entitled to a 
long life of blessing and usefulness in the Christian 
Church, conaparatively free from the vices and temp- 
tations to which his neighbors' children are con- 
tinuall}^ exposed, hastening them on to an untimely 
grave. 

Those who contend that the Fourth Command- 
ment was literally given to the world from the begin- 
ning, would do well to stop and think a moment. If 
the Fourth Commandment, as it stands in the Deca- 



114: THE lord's DAY, 

logne. Was literally given to the world, then the pre- 
face to the Ten Commandnients was given literally 
also. Now, we know of no sense in which it can be 
said that God brought every cliild of Adam bom 
into the world out of Egypt before he had learned 
tlie first table of the law, or even the First Com- 
mandment, unless the atonement of Christ was 
universal — that is, that Christ made atonemc^nt for 
Adam's sin for tlie whole race. Now this is a 
measure of New School docti-ine which none of onr 
Old School friends are going to accept. Nor is it 
literally true. Pharaoh and his hosts were not 
"brought up out of Egypt.'' The Canaanites de- 
stroyed by Josliua wei'c never '' brought up out of 
Egypt." The facts of the case are, that God brought 
His Church out of Egypt, including their infant 
cliildren. Christ died for His Church, including the 
children of believers. The latter are redeemed from 
Egypt, or tlie pagan world, V)y birthright, inheriting 
the promises made to the fathers. If we are wrong- 
on tliis point, we would thank any one wlio would 
put us right. 

The Lord's day is a new day, in memory of Christ's 
resurrection; a day in which we are not to worship 
God by carnal ceremonies, but in spirit and in truth. 
The state can only enforce the outward ol)servance 
of the Ten Commandments, but the gospel requires 
of its adherents their spiritual observance as well. 
The Jews observe the day in whicli Christ lay in tlie 
tomb, and rightly, too, as they reject the Saviour. 
We observe the day He arose. The Jewish system 
enjoined not only rest of the body on the Sabbath, 



AND NOT THE JEWISH SABBATH. 115 

but also strict meditation in the law — a state of dis- 
ciplesliip; but the Christian system requires tlie 
tcacliing of the gospel — a state of apostleship. 
Herein consists the great difference between tlie two 
days; hence the Christian Church cannot be too 
strict in the observance of the Lord's day, "spending 
the whole time in the public and private exercises of 
God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up 
in works of necessity and mercy." We repeat, then, 
that we cannot be too strict in its observance. It is 
better for us to err on the right side, if we err at all, 
doing too much than too little; and when our sum- 
mons comes to call us into the next period of rest — 
the rest in the New Jerusalem — may we hear with 
it the welcome reception, "Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 



PART SECOND. 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAK 

CHRIST'S SERMON ON THE SECOND TABLE OF THE 
LAW, OR MAN'S DUTY TO MAN. 

THAT portion of Scripture commencing with 
Luke XV. 1, and ending with Luke xvii. 10, is 
one continuous discourse or sermon, divided, it is 
true, into various heads, but each head so related to 
the others as to form a link in one continuous chain, 
varied only as the Great Preacher directs His voice 
to the whole audience about matters wliich concern 
all in general, or to His disciples about some point 
in which thej are more especially interested. The 
three parables contained in the fifteenth chapter, 
usually denominated the Parables of Grace^ ouglit 
by no means to be separated from the remainder of 
the discourse, as is usually done by tlieologians; bnt 
the whole should be studied ii^ their connection, and 
when once thoroughly comprehended, will be found 
to contain a far more admirable and complete system 
of Christian theology tlian any yet constructed by 
the councils of men. 



1 1 8 THE PHARISEE 



THE PREFACE. 

•* Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to 
hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 
This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." — Luke xv. 
1, 2. 

Here we have tlie occasion of the disconrse--thc 
murmuring of the Pharisees because our Lord re- 
ceived sinners, and ate with tliem. In order, tlicn, 
tliat we may understand and appreciate the whole 
discourse, we njust not consider our Lord in tlie liglit 
of a modern evangelist, preaching to a mixed multi- 
tude in some mod jrn city, among the members of 
whose audience some petty jealousy had arisen, but 
as preaching to a specified company of typical char- 
acters, and yet each character the representative of a 
class existing through all time. Let us, then, care- 
fully examine the characteristics of the audience 
which forms Christ's congregation on this occasion. 

Among the most prominent of this audience are 
the publicans, or, as the word indicates, the public 
men — tliose who gathered the taxes and revenues for 
the Homan government. They gathered the taxes 
on private property and real estate, hs well as tribute 
on foreign goods, and might well be denominated the 
tax gatherers. If I understand the matter correctly, 
at the time of this occurrence the Jewish nation was 
subject to two taxes: 1st, That paid to the temple 
service for the support of the Levitical priestliood, 
including home rule and the expenses of the temple, 
amounting to one-tentli of their income; and 2d, A 
tax to the Roman government, a part of which was 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 1 1 9 

expended in maintaining a foreign government in 
tlieir midst, and a part of wliicli was sent away to 
maintain tlie general government at Rome. This 
also amounted to one-tenth of their income. So tliat 
virtually they liad to pay one-lifth of their income 
for taxes — ^a very lieavy burden indeed. 

The Pluirisees despised and hated the publicans, 
because they looked upon them as traitors, who, by 
collecting the taxes for a foreign power, had virtually 
sold their brethren into what they considered to be a 
species of bondage. Tlie Pharisees considered them- 
selves as the chosen people — "the children of the 
kingdom/' — while they looked upon all Gentiles as 
only so many dogs, w^lio, instead of ruling over them, 
sliould have been their slaves, compelled to kneel and 
cringe at their feet, as a dog does at the feet of his 
master; and they were now daily expecting this 
change of positions by the coming of the promised 
Messiah, who would subdue all nations to Huxiself. 
But the publicans had not only committed what ap- 
peared to them a terrible outrage against the nation, 
by selling themselves as servants to the Gentile dogs, 
but their occupation was polluting by bringing them 
in continual contact with the Gentiles, for they had 
daily and hourly to handle their money — Koman 
coin, on one side of wdiich was a portrait of Caesar, 
the personification of the Homan gods, and on the 
other side an emblem, the Roman eagle, symbol of 
the constant watchfulness and faithfulness with which 
Rome guarded her interests, as well as the velocity 
and severity with which she punished any infraction 
of them. 



120 TtiE PHARISt:E 

The reasons for which the publicans had accepted 
the offices of trust under the Konian government 
were doubtless varied. Poverty may have driven 
some to accept an occupation vvjiich their souls de- 
tested ; the love of gain may have actuated others ; 
wliile a still larger class, having an indistinct idea of 
the disintegration of the ceremonial law and the 
nature of tlie Messianic kingdom, doubtless con- 
sidered ceremonial purity of less consequence than 
that purit}' and integrity of heart which actuated 
them to so readily accept our Saviour and His mission. 
Whatever the objects may have been with which 
these persons accepted the position, they were con- 
sidered invalid by the Pharisees and scribes, who had 
ejected them from the temple and tal)ernacle service, 
and branded them as outcasts from the nation. 

Intimately allied with the publicans were the din- 
ners, or persons who, either from choice or bodily 
defect, did not conform to the ceremonial law. The 
Pharisees considered all bodily disease as the result 
of gross sin, hence, a man who was born blind was 
a sinner (John ix. 34), and if not pronounced clean 
by priestly authority, although he may have been 
healed by a supernatural power, was still considered 
unworthy of- a place among "the children of the 
kingdom." The injustice of such conduct, doubt- 
less would lead many such to seek a purity and holi- 
ness superior to the ceremonial, and thus pave the 
way for the affection bestowed upon our Lord by 
those whom the Pharisees considered as lost. Tiiese 
two classes — possibly including a few Samaritans — 
were the "Lost sheep of the house of Israel," to 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 121 

whom our Lord expressly declares Himself to have 
been sent. 

Tlie other important element which formed this 
congregation was the Pharisees. The word '' Phari- 
see" means a separatist — one separated from the 
world — purer and holier than others. The Phari- 
sees were the rigliteons people of the nation. They 
were very strict in the observance of the Mosaic law, 
very careful to keep all the requirements of the 
ceremonial law, and especially to guard themselves 
against all ceremonial impurity. If a Pharisee came 
in contact with a Gentile, whose whole body and 
clothing were polluted by the swine's flesh, and other 
unclean food that he had eaten, he naturally felt 
himself polluted, and must pass through a ceremonial 
purification before he would dare enter the temple 
or tabernacle. Tbe same reasons would keep him 
aloof from the publican and sinner. He could not 
associate with him; could not eat out of the same 
vessel. The rich man would no sooner allow the 
poor Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, to touch him, 
than he would allow the dogs to lick his hands or 
feet. To a Pharisee, the deepest and most deplor- 
able depth of Lazarus's degradation, was, not alone 
his poverty, but the pollution caused by his body 
being covered with sores, and these sores to be licked 
by unclean dogs, thus mingling their saliva with his 
blood, and corrupting his whole system. 

The scribes were intimately allied to the Phari- 
sees. Their occupation was to prepare copies of the 
Old Testament Scriptures, for private and general 
use. As they were supposed to employ their whole 



122 THE PHARISEE 

time in copying portions of the sacred writings, it 
was generally understood that they were thoronglily 
conversant with those writings. But they, like tlie 
Pharisees, had caught at the shadow and lost tlie 
spirit. They had failed to see in the Mosaic sym- 
bolism a hand pointing them away from self to the 
true Physician ; and supposing man to be his own 
saviour, tliey had made themselves, in the strictest 
sense of the word, servants of the law. To them, 
there was, virtually, in the wliole Mosaic system, no 
cure for sin but to live aloof from it. In Gilead 
there was no balm and no pliysician. The whole 
Old Covenant was to them one mighty system of 
quarantine. Tlie lioliness whicli it required was to 
keep awaj^ from pollution, and not to come in con- 
tact with it. *'Toucli not, taste not, handle not," 
was the Alpha and Omega of the law. The only 
remedy for moral disease, of whicli ceremonial im- 
purity was a symbol, was to keep away from it. 
There was no physician that could cure. All that 
the priest could do was to offer sacrifice, look upon 
the leper, and pronounce him unclean, or if cured 
by the miraculous intervention of Divine power, to 
pronounce him clean. He had no power to cleanse 
tlie disease. 

We now have the audience to which Christ pre- 
sented the following parables: The publicans and 
sinners on the one hand, forming "the lost sheep of 
the house of Israel," and the Pharisees and the 
scribes on the other, forming the ''children of the 
kingdom," who had never gone astray. The two 
combined were the representatives of the visible 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 123 

kingdom of Israel. Tliey were all the carnal seed 
of Abrahatn, — all born within the limits of the 
visible kingdom, and a portion alone had strayed 
away from it. Now, we must not, on the one hand, 
confound this visible kingdom with the spiritual, 
nor, on the other, with the Gentile world, from 
which it was entirely separate; and yet it is typical 
of that preliminary process at work to-day in the 
minds of believers and students of God's word which 
in the end establishes the spiritual kingdom. 

It does not appear that the Pharisees objected to 
John the Baptist preaching to the out-casts of 
Israel. On the other hand, they would admire his 
austere life, his fastings, his baptism of running 
water — symbol of purity; but they would doubtless 
object to his retirement and desert life, and would 
much rather have had him make a public exhibition 
of his austerity by a show of long fastings in the 
temple, or in some noted sjmagogue. But now the 
Great Physician has come — He who lias control 
over all diseases. He has no need to remain away 
from the unclean; He can eat with them, and suffer 
no bodily defilement; He can put His hands upon 
the polluted leper and cleanse him, without any fear 
of being defiled Himself. 

All this was a mystery to the Pharisees and scribes. 
They could not understand it. They had supposed 
that, above all others, the Messiah, the Son of David, 
would be a most strict example of ceremonial purity. 
That He should allow Himself to be defiled by com- 
ing in contact with publicans and sinners, and eating 
with them, was, to their minds, only a proof of His 



124- THE PHARISEE 

own impurity and iinholiness. He was not the Sa- 
viour they had expected ; one who would save them 
from Gentile power, and consequently from Gentile 
pollution. He told them, however, plainly, tliat " they 
that are wliole need not a physician," and that He 
came "not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance." Yet they could not understand Him, 
and " murmured that He should receive sinners, and 
eat with them." It is in reference to tliis that He 
relates tlie three following parables. 



THE LOST SHEEP. 



"And He spake this parable unto them, saying. What man of you 
having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave 
the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which 
is lost, until he find it ? And when he hath found it, he layeth 
it on his shoulderp, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he 
calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, 
Kejoice with me ; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one 
sinner that repenteth, more' than over ninety and nine just per- 
sons which need no repentance." — Luke xv. 3-7. 

In order that we may better understand these par- 
ables, it will be necessary to look upon them, not 
from our stand-point of view in these later ages, and 
with our surroundings, but as a good pious Jew of 
Christ's time would understand them, with his sur- 
roundings, and the knowledge which he possessed of 
the history of his own people, with tlieir customs 
and practices. It will also be necessary to note some 
things in common to all, and some points in which 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 125 

there is a wide difference. Treating of the same 
subject as they do, they go hand in hand, and should 
by no means be studied separately; only by being 
viewed in their relation to each other can their beauties 
be properly observed. Tlie three, as tliey are ar- 
ranged by the evangelist, appear to manifest types 
of three grades of intelligence, as well as of condi- 
tion. 

It will be observed that the stray sheep did not 
find itself, nor return of its own free will. The 
shepherd went after it, and searched till he had 
found it : and then he carried it back upon his own 
shoulders. 

The lost piece of money did not find itself, but the 
woman swept tlie floor, and searched diligently with 
a lighted candle, till she found it. 

]^ot so with the prodigal son. There was no 
searching for liim. His father remained at liome 
until lie returned. He came back of his own accord. 

Again, notice the proportion of numbers. One 
sheep out of a hundred ; one piece of money out of 
ten ; one son out of two. 

Again, observe that one sheep out of a hundred 
owned by one shepherd is but a small loss ; one 
piece of money out of ten is a much greater loss to a 
poor woman. But one son out of two, on whom the 
wealth of a tender father's loving heart had been be- 
stowed, was a loss far exceeding either of the others. 

Again, the first parable treats of a silly sheep, ig- 
norant* of what it was doing. The guilt is but little, 
and can only excite the shepherd's pity — not his 
anger. The second is a coin bearing the image and 



120 THE PHARISEE 

superscription of the king. This coin is lost and 
searched after and found among tlie kitchen filth, — 
there is greater guilt here, but it rests upon tlie wo- 
man who lost it. But the third is a greater crime 
still. The son wilfully sins against liglit ; leaves a 
father's liouse, where every care and attention liad 
been paid to liim ; goes away from a liome of purity 
and holiness-, and becomes the companion of harlots 
and filtliy swine. 

Once more, in the case of the sheep, tlie shepherd 
lays it on his slioulder and carries it, not to where 
the ninety and nine are, in the wilderness (or still un- 
der tlie law), but to his own home. The piece of 
money is restored to its former position. But the 
father tells the brother of tlie prodigal, "All I have 
is thine." There is no record that the lost income 
was ever restored to the wanderino^ son : and vet the 
gifts bestowed upon him would indicate that some- 
thing still better than the income was reserved for 
him in the future. These different grades doubtless 
refer to different attainments in the knowledge of 
God's kingdom. 

Tlie parable of the lost sheep was very appropri- 
ately addressed to the Pharisees and scribes, who pro- 
fessed to be the spiritual shepherds of Israel, those 
who should have taken care of tlie flock, and broiiglit 
back the wandering ones, instead of murmuring and 
complaining because another was doing it for tiiem. 
In many cases they had scattered the flock instead 
of gathering them ; and it is quite probable that 
even in the present instance their harsh, cruel treat- 
ment of the publicans had been the cause of driving 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 127 

them away from the tabernacle. Ezekiel says, in 
reference to such, " Woe be to tlie shepherds of Israel 
that do feed themselves. Should not the sliepherds 
feed tlie flocks ? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you 
with the wool. Ye kill them that are fed ; but 
ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not 
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was 
sick, neither have ye bound up tliat whicli was broken, 
neither have ye brought again that which was driven 
away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; 
but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." 
(Ezek. xxxiv. 2-19.) Zechariah also says: "Woe to 
the idol sheplierd that leaveth tlie flock ! the sword 
shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye ; his 
arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall 
be utterly darkened." (Zee. xi. 15-17.) (The word 
" idol,^^ in tliis sentence, means one extremely selfish, 
who takes all the worship, honor, and glory to him- 
self, witliout yielding anytliing in return, just as an 
idol would. 

It is needless to recount here how often our Lord 
is called in tlie Scriptures the Shepherd of Israel, 
and how often we are told " He leadeth His flock 
like a sheplierd, and gathereth the little ones in His 
arms." This language is perfectly familiar to all 
who have studied the Bible. 

The prodigal, when he had wandered away, could 
return to his father's home; but not so with this 
sheep. It required a powerful arm to bring Israel, 
like a flock, from the darkness and bondage of Egypt. 
(Psa. Ixxvii. 20; Psa. Ixxviii. 52.) And here it may 
be well to observe, that in the history of God's 



128 THE PHARISEE 

Church there were three wanderings recorded, of 
wliich tliat in Egypt was the iii'st ; the second, in 
Babylon (in which, not like Israel in Egypt, they 
bore the king's seal, liaving already been nnder the 
law and tlie prophets); and the third, wlien they 
were carried away captive by tlie Romans. From 
the latter they must i*eturn themselves. God will 
not send a Moses to orather and brino^ thein back, as 
He did in former times. They may wander twenty, 
or even forty centuries; they must in tlie end come 
back of their own free will; but God will not restore 
to them the lost lieritage of Palestine, but mfdvc 
them partakers witli tlie Gentiles. 

The ninety and nine were left in the wilderness; 
not an open, barren desert, or a haunt of wild beasts, 
but a land of green pastures. According to the 
oriental idea, any land out on the common, and not 
enclosed in a cultivated field, would be called a 
desert. One Spanish version, which I have, calls it 
i\\G despohlado^ literally ^^the unpeojpled ;^^ that is, 
not covered with houses and farms. We read in the 
record of the miracle of the five loaves and two 
fishes, in the sixth chapter of John, that there was 
much grass in the place, while another evangelist 
calls it a desert. Any large tract of uncultivated 
green"pasture-land would be, in tliis sense, a desert. 

Christ, the great Shepherd, came to our world 
"to seek and to save that which was lost." For this 
purpose He clothed Himself in our humanity, fol- 
lowed us down into the ver}^ Egypt of our degra- 
dation, and by His cross and His grave He plunged 
Himself into the very Red Sea of the enemy's 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 129 

battle-ground, and received all the fiery darts of 
tlje enemy into His own bosom. He found us in 
the verj^ jaws of the monster death, and having 
rescued us, He carries us in triumph to his own ce- 
lestial home. 

And now He calls His friends and neis^hbors to- 
gether to rejoice witli Him. Thej may be the 
members of tlie sanctified Cliurcli, or they may be 
saints and angels in heaven. The ^^ shall ^e" joy 
(vs. 7) has led many to suppose that it would be 
future, wlien all the redeemed should be gathered in 
His celestial kingdom ; but then it is represented as 
taking place while the sinner is repenting; so tliat 
1 am ratlier inclined to suppose that carrying him 
home merely means making a son of him, by bringing 
him into membership in the sanctified Church on 
earth. 

Bat who are the ninety and muQ just persons who 
need no repentance? Are these, as many commen- 
tators assert, Pharisees who are just in their own 
eyes, merely imagining themselves just? — whited 
sepulchres, clean without, but full of tilth within ? 
I must say that I cannot, for one moment, accept 
such a superficial vdew as this. The ninety and nine 
have not wandered away. The nine pieces of money 
have not been lost. The prodigal's brother never 
left his father's home. 

If we take the proper view of the case, the solu- 
tion is an easy one. The sheep had wandered away 
from the fold in the desert, not from the shepherd's 
home. The publicans and sinners had wandered 
away from the visible kingdom of Israel. The 



130 THE PHARISEE 

Pharisees had not wandered from this kingdom, but 
had coinplied with all the requirements of the cere- 
monial law. The}' had no need of repentance (the 
word repentance means a change of mind, a coming 
back), having never gone astray. Christ's spiritual 
kingdom is not taken into consideration here. The 
ninety and nine were legally righteous, and, as sucli, 
were at home in the kingdom of Israel, never having 
wandered from it. \Yhen the kingdom of God — 
the kingdom of faith — is established, then another 
and a higher righteousness is required, and to this 
the wanderer is carried when brought back, and is 
now made a son of God through the gospel, while 
the ninet}^ and nine still remain in the desert, ser- 
vants of the law. Over this one there is more re- 
joicing than over the ninety and nine that went not 
astray. The youngest, weakest, tenderest child of 
the Father is greater than the greatest of all the 
prophets of the old or legal dispensation, for they 
are but servants, while he is a son. 

''I say unto you^^ says the author of this parable. 
He whose eye penetrates all worlds alone can tell 
us of the rejoicings in heaven over the rescue of the 
penitent sinner from death and hell. 

And now, let us seek the lesson to be learned. 
Christ, in this parable, appeals to their pity and com- 
passion. The Pliarisees professed to be the spiritual 
leaders of Israel, and doubtless many of them were 
material shepherds as well. He makes no reference 
to the reasons which, in the first place, had caused 
this sheep to wander, but merely states that it was lost. 

Not one of the Pharisees but w^ould, under tlie 



AlfD THE PUBLICAN. 131 

circumstances, have started at once in pursuit of the 
wanderer. If such is the case, why do thej object 
to bringing back a wanderer to the fold who is of 
tlie seed of Abrahajn — a brother having an immortal 
soul? But Pharisees are as abundant in the Cliris- 
tian Church to-day as they were in Israel in our 
Saviour's time. They may not murmur at a wan- 
derer being brought back, but they will not receive 
liim as a brother. He has fallen into disgrace; his 
character is stained with past sins, which they cannot 
forget; he l\as a hard struggle to maintain himself 
and family; he has been, and may still be, afflicted 
with disease, and the vices of his early life have left 
him in poverty; his education has been neglected; 
lie is ignorant and eccentric, uncouth, a rustic, and 
although he may be welcome to a seat in the church, 
it must be a back seat. All such Christians are still 
under the legal righteousness of the law, and have 
not yet attained to that Christ-like, child-like sim- 
plicity which loves our neighbor as we do ourselves. 



THE LOST PIECE OF MOJ^EY. 

"Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one 
piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek 
diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she 
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice 
with me ; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Like- 
wise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repenteth." — Luke xv. 8-10. 

We must not take such a superficial view of our 
Lord's teaching as to suppose that the parable of 
the lost piece of money is but a repetition of the 



132 THE PHARISEE 

parable of tlie lost sheep — meaning the same thing, 
only expressed in different words. These parables 
are connected together like links in a golden chain ; 
yet each one is as different from that which preceded 
it as it is from that which follows. In tlie parable 
of the lost siieej) an appeal is made to their own 
individual responsibility as shepherds over the flock, 
leaving their own conscience to accuse them, and 
at the same time recognize in Cln*ist, if they will, 
the Good Shepherd, who came to seek and to save 
that which was lost; but in tliis parable a woman — • 
feminine, not masculine, gender — represents an eccle- 
siastical body — the synagogue, or in otlier words, tlie 
Jewish church. Tlie seeking power in tliis parable 
is apparently moi'e the Spirit's influence tlii'ougli a 
combined human instrumentality, ratlier tlian the 
Shepherd's exposing His own life for the salvation of 
the lost. Moses was sent by God to bring Israel 
from their wanderings in Egypt, but in their return 
from Babylon He raised up for them four pro- 
minent leaders — Ezra, Neliennali, Joshua, and Zerub- 
babel. The desire of Israel in Egj^pt was to escape 
from cruel bondage. His desire in Babylon was to 
be restored to his own country and government. 

As money usually bears the image of tlie king or 
emperor of the country in which it is coined, so a 
piece of money in this parable has been understood 
by all expositors, both ancient and modern, to re- 
present the human soul; bearing the image of the 
great King, according to tlie express declaration of 
the Scriptures, "God created man in His own 
image." I am, however, inclined to think that tlie 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 133 

image of tlie King, on one side, was the impressions 
made by the teachings and example of tlie kings and 
propliets of Israel — representatives of Christ's kingly 
and prophetic character; and the inscription on the 
otlier side, the impression of the law — the mint of 
the great King. Israel, in Babylon, never ceased to 
mourn tlieir lost condition. Their hearts were ever 
filled witli longings to return to Jerusalem, the city 
in which they had been stamped and coined, but no 
sucli desire was manifested in Egypt. There they 
only bemoaned their lost condition, but manifested 
no desire to return to the land of Abraham, of Isaac, 
and of Jacob. 

The woman having lost a piece of silver, "lights a 
candle." The candle is God's word, shinino: throuo-h 
human agency, according to Christ's own w^ords: 
*' Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on 
a hill cannot be hid. ITcither do men light a candle 
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and 
it giveth liglit to all that are in the house. Let your 
light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father which is in 
heaven." With the same object in view, Paul says : 
"That ye may be blameless and harniless, the sons 
of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked 
and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as liglits 
in the world, liolding forth the word of life.^"' And 
again: "All things that are reproved are made mani- 
fest by the light; for whatsoever doth make manifest 
is light." "My Word is a lamp unto thy feet," etc. 
Perhaps, to be more definite, we may say that the 
candle in the Old Testament dispensation is the 



134 THE PHARISEE 

word as given by Moses and the prophets. " The 
testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophec}'." 

The Church holds forth the candle of God's word 
in lier ministry, preacliing the word in a general 
sense; but there must be something more than a 
general preaching of the word. A knowledge of 
God alone is not sufficient to save the soul. A 
knowledge of the word will save no man. If we 
turn for a moment to the opening of the seven 
seals, in the book of Revelation, we will observe 
that the first scene presented is tliat of a rider on a 
white horse, wearins: a o^arlund on his head — a crown 
symbolical of delegated autliority, and not the diadem 
of the king. This rider had a how in his hand^ — 
a S3"mbol of conviction. "Thine arrows are sharp 
in tlie heart of the king's enemies." This is fol- 
lowed by a red horse, with a rider to whom was 
given a sliarp sword^ bringing conviction liome to 
the soul, and producing repentance. This sharp 
sword is the candle of this parable. At the opening 
of the thii'd seal, a rider on a black horse is seen, 
with a 2)air of balances in his hand. Black is a 
symbol of prophecy, and the balances a symbol of 
justice — honest dealing between man and man; a 
system of just weights and measures; a measure of 
wheat and three measures of barley for their just 
value, and no adulteration of tlie oil and the wine. 
The balances of the third seal are the hroom of this 
parable. 1 cannot say here, as some do, that the 
broom represents the gospel, because the gospel in 
its plenitude was not yet given. The outline of the 
gospel, as contained in Old Testament prophecy, is 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 135 

to be soiiglit for in the lighted candle. John, the 
greatest of all the prophets of the old dispensation, 
was " a burning and a sliining light." The candle 
illumines; the broom cleans out the rubbish. Botli 
go hand in hand. The broom is Joshua's sword, 
cleaning out the Canaanites. Tlie broom does not 
appear to be so mucli the general teaching of the 
word, as to be the cleansing out of the rubbish from 
the Church, wdiile the gospel would rather indicate 
a cleansing or wasliing of the coin itself after it 
has been found. T1k3 candle would indicate a gen- 
eral illumination of the word, while the broom indi- 
cates the word put in practice. Moses was a school- 
master, Israel the discipleship, and the school-room 
the desert. Joshua on the battle-fitdd enforced what 
Moses had taught. A red horse, symbol of war, is 
an appropriate symbol of the law; so also is a broom, 
overturning everything, disarranging the furniture, 
driving out the cats and dogs, and creating a tre- 
mendous dust. Oh! what a dust the law arouses in 
the heart of the sinner! False doctrine, in the alle- 
gorical language of the Scriptures, is compared to a 
smoke; and we ever observe that where an attempt 
is made to enforce the law, Satan attempts to ob- 
scure it by covering it with a smoke or dust of false 
doctrine. But the broom continues its work. Every 
nook and corner is swept. Dirt, tilth, old rags, 
rotten clothing, decaying fruit and vegetables, roll 
away before the broom. Oh! who would have 
thouo^ht that such a mass of rottenness and filth 
could have accumulated in the human heart as is re- 
vealed by the light of the Word and the enforcement 



136 THE PHARISEE 

of justice! Oh! is it strange that when the churches 
and ministers come with their weapons, that those who 
are at ease sliould complain that "those who turn the 
world upside down are come hither also"? 

An old, wicked king is routed out of his corner, 
where he has been quietly offering sacrifice to false 
gods, grumbling as he goes, and exclaiming to God's 
prephet as he departs, "Art thou he that troubleth 
Israel?'' In Sodom and Egypt, in that great city 
where our Lord was crucified, these faithful wit- 
nesses are busy — lighting, sweeping — sweeping, light- 
ing — tormenting "those that dwell upon the earth." 

But onward, onward the woman presses with her 
light and broom, all unmindful of the dust she is rais- 
ing, or of the tumult she is creating among the broken 
furniture. Intently engaged in her search, deter- 
mined to find the lost, she heeds not the excitement 
around. Dagon falls, and is broken to pieces. 
Pharaoh and his army are swept into the Red Sea. 
Nineveh and Babylon are clean swept away. Every 
stone in Jerusalem is overturned, and the place 
ploughed up. That great mountain which oppressed 
Israel in our Saviour's time — the Roman empire — 
has disappeared. Persia, Greece, heathen gods and 
altars and idols, are all cleaned out. Darkness is 
overcome by the light of God's word, error by the 
truth, false doctrine by the purity of the law, and at 
last the lost is found. The Church has fulfilled her 
duty, and now comes an hour of rejoicing. The 
sliepherd went to look for the lost sheep in the 
wilderness, but the woman searches for the lost 
piece of money in her own house. Christ came to 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 137 

our world when our whole race was lost in sin. He 
sought us, and rescued us from the kingdom of 
Sntan. The Church seeks and finds that wliich was 
lost within her own sphere. Remember that this 
parable was spoken to those under the old dispensa- 
tion, and that tlie home which the woman swept was 
the house of Israel, and the publicans and sinners 
were the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" — tliose 
who had been educated under the law and within 
the bounds of tlie kingdom. Observe, also, that 
this class of persons originated from the captivity in 
Babvlon.and were not Gentiles that had found their 
way into Judea. It is very easy, then, to see the 
perfect analogy which exists between this people 
and the present antitype in the Christian Church. 

In. the parable of tlie lost sheep the Shepherd 
returns with it to His own home, the kingdom of 
heaven, and invites His celestial friends to rejoice 
with Him. In this the woman does not go out of 
her own home in search of the lost piece of money, 
but finds it in her own house, and then invites her 
terrestrial friends to rejoice with her; and oh! how 
ever}^ true member of Christ's kingdom rejoices 
when the repentant sinner is found and restored to 
the bosom of the Church ! And no doubt the angels 
in heaven join also in the rejoicing. All the woman 
can do is to restore the lost money to its former 
condition. This is all that the visible Church can 
do. It requires a divine power to elevate it to a 
higher sphere, or, in other words, implant within 
the sinner's breast tlie power of a divine life. 

The shepherd, on his return, tells his friends, "I 



138 THE PHARISEE 

liave found my sheep." It was His sheep that had 
wandered away. He is our Creator. We are His 
own personal property, by creation as well as by re- 
demption. The woman, on the other hand, does not 
say, " I have found my money which was lost," but 
"1 have found the piece of money." The money did 
not belong to her; it was only loaned to her by the 
Good Shepherd, who owns both the slieep and the 
money. The money we daily use in buying and 
selling has found such a familiar place in our pockets 
that we imagine it is ours, to do with* as we please. 
Not so! It belongs to the government that coined 
it, and we can only use it for the legitimate purpose 
for which it was made. We cannot cut it up or 
deface it without incurring the displeasure of its 
true owner. The same may be said of our rea. 
estate : we are stewards of it, while we are citizensl 

In the case of tlie prodigal son, the father says of 
him, "m?/ 50/z." We belong to Christ b}' creation 
and redemption, but we only belong to the church 
for a time, as a loan. I think I see here indications 
of a sense in whicli, under the New Covenant, we 
belong to Christ in a wa}^ whicli we did not under 
the Old. Christ speaks of certain persons as having 
been given to Him by the Father. Dr. Hodge tells 
me that these were the elect, who were given to 
Christ in the covenant of redemption. 

Again, the Good Shepherd does not say, " I have 
found My sheep which / had lostP Christ never 
lost a sheep out of His fold by His own carelessness. 
This sheep strayed away, and, going farther and far- 
ther away, finally lost itself. But the woman says, " I 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 139 

have found the piece of money whicli / had lostP 
The woman lost this by her own negligence and care- 
lessness, and here slie makes confession. If the 
publicans and sinners were lost from the fold of 
Israel, it was because the Pharisees and scribes had 
lost them. They had caused them to wander. Their 
fathers had caused the nation to bo carried away 
captive to Babylon. They had driven them away 
from the temple and turned them away from the 
synagogue, and now they gather up their garments 
for fear that 'they might be polluted by coming in 
contact with them. Far better would it have been 
for them to have imitated tlie woman with her candle 
and broom, as did Christ and His disciples, and have 
gone into the iilth and dust and dirt, and worked 
away till tliey had restored them to purity and holi- 
ness and happiness. 

Bible students have noticed here that the friends 
and neighbors invited home to rejoice with the woman 
are in the feminine gender — a peculiarity of the 
Greek text which we do not find in the English 
translation. The same peculiarity of expression is 
to be found in the Spanish. Amigo is a male friend ; 
amiga is a female friend. Many have supposed 
from this circumstance, and the immediate reference 
to the angels in the following verse, that these female 
friends were guardian angels; but this cannot be the 
case, as the Greek word ayyeXo^ is masculine, and not 
feminine. But I must confess that I am skeptical 
upon this whole question of guardian angels. 1 can 
understand how the church, composed of weak, 
fallible, sinful mortals, all sinning daily, may lose 



140 THE PHA.RISEE 

the Mastcj-'s sheep from the fold — a sin vvhic-li she 
must repent of, and wliich alone can be atoned for 
by a Saviour's blood; but that angels, who are wise 
and holy, sliould commit such a sin, and that without 
condemnation, is more than I can believe. Paul 
says that ''we shall judge angels." If this is literal, 
and I arrive to be one of the judges, I shall certainly 
give ray vote to have all such angels condemned. 
The only guardian angel I know anything about is 
the angel of Jacob — the angel tliat stopped the 
mouths of the lions in tlie den where Daniel was 
cast, — Christ, the Guardian angel of the sanctified 
believer. I would rather understand that the invita- 
tion which the woman extends to her friends to re- 
joice with her to be a future invitation, wliich the 
church, through coming ages, extends to the Gentiles 
— the outside world — to rejoice witli her in the bless- 
ings of the gospel and its great salvation. 

And now, in the moral we find an appeal to their 
patriotism — their interest as a nation. It is certainly 
to the interest of the nation that all the lost sheep 
should be gathered in, as well as that all the money 
they have lost should be restored to them. Tiie labor 
of mining and coining the metal, as well as the labor 
of the woman in earning it, are all at stake. The 
lost money had cost the woman many an hour of 
toil and frugal economizing, and she cannot afford 
to lose it. But just here Satan drags in his great 
idol, self^ blinding the Pharisee to the interest of 
God's cliurch and kingdom, and, yes, to his own 
personal interest also when it conflicts with the 
adoration paid to the idol — a monster that will induce 



AJND THE PUBLICAN. 141 

a man to cat off his right hand or phick out his riglit 
eye rather than that men should think that he is not 
lioh'er and better and wiser than others. 

The parable of the ten pieces of silver closes by 
saying, "There is joy in the presence of God over 
one sinner that repenteth." And the language used 
at the closing of the parable of the lost sheep is still 
more emphatic: *' Joy shall be in heaven over one 
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
nine just persons that need no repentance." Upon 
this passage Altbrd comments as follows: "They 
are the subjectively righteous ; and this saying respects 
their own view of themselves, (or if it be required 
that the words should be literally explained, seeing 
that these ninety-nine did not err, then I see no 
other way but to suppose them, in the deeper mean- 
ing of the parable, to be the worlds that have not 
fallen, and the one that has strayed our human 
nature in this our world.)-' There can be no doubt 
but our world is a very great sinner, but it is far 
from being a repentant sinner. I have no idea that 
the Pharisees who were present on this occasion had 
any conception of the world of space, consequently 
cannot suppose that Christ in addressing them should 
use language so far above their comprehension. 
Alford's mistake is that of tens of thousands, who 
suppose that Christ related these parables, not to a 
company of Jews, such as was then gathered around 
Him, consisting of publicans and sinners, scribes and 
Pharisees, but to a company of Englishmen — Englisli 
Christians — just such as Dean Alford was accustomed 
to preach to in his own land. 



142 THE PHARISEE 

The Pharisees and scribes were all very zealous 
of the law. And now, if we look into a Greek 
dictionar\% we will find tliat the word translated 
here "jnst persons," means persons who "conformed 
to tlie customs;"' in this case, those who conformed 
to Jewish la'w. Sinners, then, according to their 
ideas, were just the reverse oi just; that is, they 
were persons wlio from some cause could not par- 
take of the temple and synagoo;ue service. Tliey 
were unclean, suffering with bodily defilement, either 
natural, accidental, or imposed. They should have 
had, and possibly many of them did have, some vague 
idea of the purity or defilement of tlie soul, which 
their outward condition symbolized. 

The Pharisees even went so far as to impose laws 
of ceremonial purit}^, which were not to be found in 
the law of Moses ; and Christ often reproved them 
for it. On one occasion they found fault with Jesus 
because His disciples did not wash their hands be- 
fore eating. " He answered, and said unto them, 
Well hath Esaias propliesied of you hypocrites, as it 
is written. This people honoreth me with their lips, 
but their heart is far from mo. Howbeit, in vain 
do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the com- 
mandments of men. Full well do ye reject the com- 
mandment of God, that ye may keep your own tra- 
dition."' Now they would call the disciples of 
Christ sinners, not because they kept the law of 
Moses, but because they did not keep their revised 
version of Moses' law. The}' excluded the publicans 
from the synagogue and temple because they came 
in daily contact with the officers of the Roman gov- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 143 

ernment, upon the ground that every person wlio 
came in contact with an unclean person himself be- 
came unclean. 

The Pharisees were continually complaining that 
Christ was a friend of publicans and sinners. On 
one occasion He had called a publican, named Mat- 
thew, and as He sat at meat with liim many publi- 
cans and sinners, seeing Matthew in His company, 
came and sat with them. When the Pharisees saw 
it, tliey began to inquire of His disciples, "Why 
eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" 
Wlien Jesus heard it, He answered, ''They that are 
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;" 
and then immediately adds, " I am not come to call 
the righteous^ but sinners to repentance." The word 
''righteous" here, is synonymous with j ust persons ; 
that is, those who were justified under the old dis- 
pensation. We must bear in mind tliat there is a 
wide difference between them and the sanctified un- 
der the reign of the gospel. On another occasion, a 
Pharisee had invited Him to dine with him, and 
while He sat at tlie table a woman came, who was a 
sinner, bearing an alabaster box of YGvy precious 
ointment, which she poured on His feet. When the 
Pharisee saw it he thought to himself, " This man, 
if He were a prophet, would have known who and 
what manner of woman this is." According to the 
modern idea of the meaning of the word " sinner," 
this woman is supposed to have been a very vile 
character. Any bodily defect tliat would exclude 
her from the synagogue and temple, would consti- 
tute her a sinner in the eyes of a Pharisee. A wo- 



144: THE I»HARISEE 

man suffering from a disease wliich excluded her 
from the temple and synagogue, and from all inter- 
course witli other people, so that, according to the 
Levitical law, she could not even touch another with- 
out polluting him, and causing him in turn to pass 
through a ceremonial purification, came slyly behind 
Jesus, and touched the hem of His garments. Siie 
had not polluted Him, as she supposed she had done, 
hut He healed her. 

Jesus feared no bodily defilement. It is true that 
on one occasion He met ten men that were lepers, 
standing afar off (according to the requirements of 
the law), saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy upon 
us." And He commanded them to go and show 
themselves to the priests ; but upon otlier occasions 
He put his hands upon them and healed them. He 
also put His hands upon a dead body, and restored 
it to life ; and again, we find Him seated at the table 
of Simon the leper, and eating with him, regardless 
of any bodily defilement or the criticisms of the 
Pharisees, who, for this act alone, would class Him 
with the sinners. In the case of the blind man re- 
stored to sight, recorded by John, they did not hesi- 
tate to class Him with sinners because He had per- 
formed a miracle on the Sabbath day. " Tlierefore 
said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God, 
because, others said, How can a man that is a sin- 
ner do such miracles ? And there was a division 
among them." They could not understand Him — 
He was a mystery to them. 

There appears to have been a WQvy general belief 
among them that anyj^odily defect that excluded 



ANt) THE PUBLICAN. 145 

tiiem from the temple serv^ice was a direct result of 
sin. A lame or blind person, or one suffering any 
bodily deformity, could not officiate as a priest; but 
it appears that tlie Pharisees took occasion to exclude 
all such from the court, as well as from the sanctu- 
ary, considering him in some way a sinner, and hence 
the general application of the word " sinner '* to all 
such, irrespective of the condition of the heart; con- 
sequently, when the disciples first saw this blind man 
they asked, "Master, who did sin, this man or his 
parents, that he was born blind ?" And, as a na- 
tural result, when he who was born blind, but whose 
eyes were now opened, completely overwhelmed His 
adversaries witli arguments, proving that no unclean 
person could open a blind man's eyes, they fell back 
upon their own arbitrary law : he was born blind, 
consequently unclean, and so they say, "Thou wast 
altogether born in sin," and they cast hhn out of the 
synagogue. 

* It is now an easy thing to understand who the 
"just persons" — the righteous — under the old dis- 
pensation, were. Its professors may have been pure 
in heart, or tliey may iiave been but unclean hypo- 
crites. Their righteousness was that spoken of in 
the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel — a righteousness 
from which a man could turn away — a grace from 
which a man may fall, and within which the germ 
of eternal life may be found, or none of the old dis- 
pensation could be saved. But now Christ comes 
with a higher "righteousness, — His own righteous- 
ness, and not that which He has obtained from 
His own personal obedience, — " His righteousness." 
7 



146 THE PHARISEE 

(Ezekiel xviii. 24.) Accepting Christ's righteous- 
ness, they become no longer ''just persons" alone, 
but sa7ictified persons, or saints. From this right- 
eousness there is no turning away — no falling from 
grace. 

Here then, we behold Christ's miracles in an 
entirely new light, and His language becomes per- 
fectly clear, when He says: "The Spirit of the Lord 
is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preacli 
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal 
the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to tlie 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set 
at liberty them that are bruised." "He came to 
seek and to save that which was lost." 

I understand, then, in order to be saved by Christ, 
it was just as necessary for tlic Pharisee to feel him- 
self lost as it was for the publican or prodigal. He 
may not wander away from liis father's home, but 
Christ will come to him there, and presenting to him 
the spotless roi)e of His rigliteousness, he will At 
once so see the difference between that and his own 
garment of a servant, that lie will not hesitate to ac- 
cept it, and thereby enter upon the development of 
a sanctified soul. But if he refuses to accept Christ 
and His righteousness, his condemnation is sure. 
"They shall come from the east and from tlie west, 
and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in 
the kingdom of God, but the children of the king- 
dom shall be cast out." 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 147 

THE PKODIGAL SO:Nr. 

Luke xv. 11-32. 

This parable lias been termed by Bible expositors 
"the crown and gem of all the parables;" and al- 
though lo our private view it may appear to be the 
most instructive, yet it is hardly proper to compare 
the teachings of our Lord as we would compare the 
writings of men, as "all Scripture is given by in- 
spiration of God;" and it is only on account of our 
limited knowledge that one parable appears to us to 
be more valuable than another. 

Tliere can be no doubt whatever that when our 
Lord spake this parable He did not intend, by 
the two brothers, to represent the Jew and Gentile 
world, and any such misconception of the object of 
this parable can only lead us astray. 

Firsts The occasion on which it was spoken leaves 
no doubt but the two brothers were to be found in 
the audience that He w^as then addressing, the Phari- 
see on one hand and the publican on the other, not 
a liypocritical Pharisee, such as is so often spoken of 
in the New Testament, but one who complied with 
all the requirements of the Mosaic law. 

Second, Christ did not come to eat and associate 
with Gentiles. He never on any occasion associated 
with the officers of the Roman government. Once 
only did He enter tlie liome of a Gentile I'uler, and 
then He was carried there as a prisoner by His own 
people. 

Third, There is no analogy in rhe parable to the 



148 THE PHARISEE 

Jew and Gentile world. The Gentile was by no 
means the younger brother. He was at least two 
thousand years older than the Jew. He was not a 
prodigal, who had left the bosom of father Abraham, 
but a citizen of a far country, who kept and lived on 
swine and other unclean food. He never had a 
patrimony to squander, and no robe of righteousness, 
either legal or otherwise, to grow ragged and filthy. 

Fourth^ The Gentile was born a Gentile, and 
could not wander away from his father's house and 
return to it again. Wherever he went he was in 
Satan's kingdom, unless he came into the kingdom of 
Israel by circumcision, or into the kingdom of Christ 
by faith in a risen Savionr. 

I have no doubt but the kingdom of Israel was a 
type of Chi'ist's visible kingdom in the Gentile world 
as it exists to-day, and that the Pharisee and publican 
represents two elements existing in that Church; but 
the antitype is not the primary, but the secondary 
object of the parable. The two persons intended to 
be represented by our Lord in this parable, by the 
two brothers, were, by the one, those Jews who were 
legallj' righteous, and by the other, those who were 
not. Faith in Christ, the risen Saviour, except as 
the ceremonial law was a shadow of Him, must be 
left out of the question. Until Christ died on the 
cross, this legal righteousness was strictly required, 
and yet the salvation of the soul then, as now, depended 
upon a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. 

There probably can be no doubt but the pub- 
licans were sons of Abraham. Zaccheus was a pub- 
lican, and Luke tells us that he was "a son of Abra- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 149 

ham." Levi was a publican, and his name alone is 
proof that he was a Jew; and we are told that the 
publicans came to the baptism of John, who most 
assuredly wonld have baptized none of them had they 
been Gentiles. In fact, had they not been Jews, 
Christ would not iiave associated with them ; for He 
Himself says, when requested by a Gentile woman to 
heal her daughter, "I am not sent but to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel;" that is, to those who 
had wandered away from the fold of the legally 
righteous. Christ came in person only to the house 
of Israel. There are only two instances on record 
where He extended a helping hand to any Gentile. 
One was the case of the centurion, who could not 
receive Him under his roof because he was a Gentile 
and Christ a Jewish teacher, and His assistance was 
given only by the urgent entreaty of the Jews them- 
selves. Tlie other case was that of the Syropheni- 
cian woman; and here assistance was not rendered 
until after He had insinuated, according to the cus- 
tom of His own 'people, that she was a Gentile dog. 
The Gentiles were not to be received into the out- 
ward and visible kingdom until the Holy Ghost was 
given, and this could not be done until after Christ's 
personal mission was finished. "If I go away I will 
send the Comforter unto you." "If I go not away 
the Comforter will not come unto you." "Tarry at 
Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on 
high." And even after the Holy Ghost was given, 
no Gentile was received into the Christian Church 
until eight (some say twelve) years had passed, 



150 THE PHAEISEE 

Cornelius and his family being the first Gentile con- 
verts. 

There can be no doubt that the discourse of which 
these parables are a part, was spoken by Christ in 
order to justify His conduct in associating with pub- 
licans and sinners; and yet these parables, as they 
are intended to show the relation tliat men bear to 
God, must have a yet wider sphere, and are applica- 
ble to men everywhere, and at all times, who bear 
the same relation to Him that the righteous Jew did. 
Christ came, tlien, to sinners witliin the covenant, and 
to them were the offers of the gospel made, just as 
He commanded His disciples to tarry at Jerusalem 
and gain all the adherents that they possibly could 
before going to the Gentiles — first to the Jews, then 
to Samaritans, and finally to distant Gentile na- 
tions. So Chi'ist, by His Spirit, comes now, first to 
the children of the covenant, and then to the out- 
side world ; and w^hile the great commission is as 
binding upon us as it was upon the apostles, '*' Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature," yet we are under as binding obligations 
to "tarry at Jerusalem" until we are fully endued 
with power from on high, and until, like the disciples, 
we have studied and learned the value of these par- 
ables, with which the Divine Teacher taught His dis- 
ciples as an example for us. A command still farther 
back is binding upon us, "Go ye not into the way of 
the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans 
enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel." The children of the covenant are 
to receive our especial attention before we carry the 



AND THE PUBLICAN". 151 

gospel to tliose who have never belonged to the visi- 
ble fold. 

" Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth 
to me." Here is the Urst point of divergence. The 
younger son feels uneasy under his father's restraint, 
and wished to have more freedom, to find himself at 
liberty to follow his own inclinations. And now, as 
we come to examine this parable, the first question 
which presents itself to our minds is. What is intended 
to be represented by " the portion of goods that falleth 
to me," as the younger son says, and the " living " 
which tlie father divided with them, and that "all" 
wdiich tlie younger son gathered tv'^gether ? We may 
suppose that in the type it was a portion of goods or 
property which he could carry away, or turn into 
ready cash, and put in his pocket, or exchange for 
bills whicli he could draw on brokers elsewhere. But 
in tlie application of the parable wliat does it mean? 
What were the goods which a publican or Pharisee 
could thus receive from his father Abraham, and in 
the end w^aste and squander ? 

l^ow, if we think a moment, we will see that, what- 
ever they were, tliey were something that would 
make him independent of his father, and to a certain 
extent put him on a level wnth his father. Now, can 
w^e not recall to mind a case where Satan suggested 
to a human soul the idea of partaking of something 
that would put that soul on a level with God, and 
consequentl}^ render it independent of God ? Do 
we not remember that, when he tempted our first 
parents with the forbidden fruit, he said, " Ye 
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," and that 



152 



THE PHARISEE 



the tree on which tliat fruit grew was called " the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil"? Again, 
observe that it is not said that the father gave to the 
younger son his portion of the inheritance^ but " he 
divided to them his living;" that is, he gave to each 
an equal share of his income. AYe must here bear 
in mind that the portion of goods received by the 
younger brotlier was not his eternal inheritance. If 
we examine the original, we will find that he asked 
for his portion of the inheritance; oonu/.^ = the prin- 
cipal, the substance. But tlie father did not give it to 
him; 'Mie divided unto them his living;" ro> ^Jiov = 
his living, the interest, the income. He gave him 
wliat was his as a son of Abraham, and not what he 
was heir to as a son of Christ. The eternal inlieri- 
tance was as j^et given to neither, but held in reserve 
until that decisive hour when they would be declared 
sons of God or sons of Satan. Of this "living," it 
will be observed that each received an equal share. 
Tlie older one received as much as the younger, but 
as he remained at home he did not squander his 
share. Tlie verv act of iJ:oinii awav from home was 
the squandering. I repeat the question, then. Was 
not the knowledge of good and evil a knowledge of 
the law and the prophets, and is not a knowledge of 
the law and the propliets a knowledge of good and 
evil ? And again, I ask, was not this the true living 
or heritage which God gave to ancient Israel ? I 
admit t!iat it may be objected, that the inheritance 
which tlie younger son received was something that 
he squandered and lost, and that the knowledge of 
good and evil cannot be lost. But then, if he made 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 158 

a bad use of this knowledge, would not that be the 
same to him as to squander and lose it ? The know- 
ledge which our first parents gained by eating the 
forbidden fruit was never lost, either to themselves 
or to their descendants, yet by it they lost Paradise, 
and gained an inheritance of misei'y and death. 

But let us see what the Scriptures say on this sub- 
ject. Paul aslvs tlie question, "What advantage 
hath the Jew [over the Gentile] ? Or what profit 
is there in circumcision?*' and answers., "Much 
every way; chiefly because that unto them were 
committed the oracles of God." This, then, was the 
inheritance — "the oracles of God." And David 
confirms this when he says, "Thy testimonies have 
I taken as a heritage for ever." These testimonies 
— the law and the prophets — are also represented as 
a food, a sustenance, a living. "I will feed them 
with the heritage of Jacob," This ^Hiving^^ then, 
if not food itself, was something that would purchase 
food and raiment and happiness. "Man shall not 
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of the Lord." (Deut. viii. 3.) The 
manna which the Israelites ate in the desert, called 
by the psalmist the "bread of heaven" and "angels' 
food," was undoubtedly a type of the word of God 
contained in the Old Testament, while the Word 
that was made flesh — that true bread that came down 
from heaven for the life of the w^orld — is Christ. 
The Old Testament, then, was the portion of the 
prodigal publican, and must be taken fresh every day 
from the Father's hands. 

But perhaps my question is too broad and covers 



154 



THE pharisp:e 



too much ground. Let us see. Tliat tliere was a 
"tree of knowledge of good and evil" in paradise 
implies that the "trail of tlie serpent" had polluted 
paradise before- man was placed in it. God had 
sown good seed there, but Satan's tares came up with 
it. The good was from God, but the evil was not. 
The law and tlie propliets can produce only good. 
The prodigal, wliile he remained in his father's house, 
received onlj^ good from tlie law; it was food and 
raiment for ln*m; but when he went out into the 
\vorld, and saw how exceedinojlv sinful he was, he 
found the righteousness of the law in which he had 
trusted to be but polluted rags, and tlie nourisliment 
and happiness lie had derived from it to be but 
"swine's husks." Nevertheless, "the law is holy, 
and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 
Was then that wliich is good made death unto me? 
God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, 
working deatli in me by that which is good ; tiiat sin 
by tlie commandment miglit become exceeding sinful." 
(Rom. vii. 12, 13.) 

The goods, then, which the younger son squandered 
were the blessings which he had received from Moses 
and the prophets. They were only valuable as they 
were daily received by liim under a fatlier's restraint. 
Outside of a father's restraining hand, he becomes 
surrounded by temptations which his legal rigliteous- 
ness cannot resist, and he sees himself what he 
naturally is, poor and ragged, starving and vile. 
We. do not read that the elder brother lost or 
squandered anything. He remained under a father's 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 155 

tender care, and was not surrounded with temptation 
as his brother was. 

Again, observe the younger son remained awhile, 
at least some days, and I think the expression "not 
many days after" may mean some montlis, perhaps, 
when compared with the wliole life of man, in his 
fatlier's house after he had received his portion. He 
did not start out immediately. We are not to under- 
stand tliat the giving up tlie portion was the im- 
mediate cause of liis departure. His apostasy was 
gradual; first one dislil^e, and then another pride, 
gradually growing in his heait as he belield how rich 
he was with his small bag of treasure. 

He went into a far country. "He took his 
journey" — wandered farther and fartlier away. He 
went away from the household of father Abraham 
— left tlie dominion of the law, and, as he supposed, 
was outside of all restraint. In the case of the 
publican, we understand tl^.at he went into tlie service 
of the Roman empire. He became Caesar's servant, 
engaged in the collection of Caesar's taxes, or, in 
other words, collecting money to feed Caesar's soldiers 
— unclean swine. The Pharisees might well term 
this yeedi?ig Gentile swine. 

" Re wasted his suhstance with I'iotous living''' 
As lie participates in the sins of the world he fails 
to draw any spiritual co'mfort from Moses and the 
prophets. He leaves a father's restraint, but the in- 
structions received in childhood go with him; and as 
he breaks these, they cease to be a companion, and 
become an avenger of blood. The legal rigliteous- 
ness of the Jew was directly symbolized by the gar- 



156 TltE PHARISEE 

ment which he wore. That garinent, so clean and 
smooth when daily renewed by a father's provident 
care, becomes soiled and worn with the jonrney, and 
is soon filled with holes, for, as the prophet expresses 
it, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." 
He wasted his legal righteousness. He has no 
spiritual food. Every day brings its multiplicity of 
sins and their consequent remorse. Day by day the 
pure, spotless robe of the righteousness of the law — 
now his only inheritance — becomes more and more 
defiled, and when it is all gone to rags, he finds him- 
self in want. 

And then there arose a famine in that land — "r? 
'niighiy famine P What was this famine? I think 
that the prophet Amos describes this famine when lie 
says : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that 
I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, 
nor a thirst for wat-er, but of liearing the words of 
the Lord ; and they shall wander from sea to sea, and 
from the north even to the east; they shall run to 
and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not 
find it. In that day shall tlie fair virgins and young 
men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of 
Samaria, and say. Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and. The 
manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, 
and never rise up again.'' (Amos viii. 11-14.) 

I feel fully persuaded that this prophecy was in 
the mind of our Saviour when He pronounced the 
parable upon which we are meditating. The con- 
nection between the publicans and sinners of Judea 
and the Samaritans w^as on the ground of one and 
the same sin. The sin of Samaria was that they 



ANi) THE PUBLICAN. 157 

worshipped heatlien idols. The idol in Dan was 
worshipped by the renegade Jews, as was also tlie 
idol in Beersheba. It was a famine for the truth — 
just such a famine as is to-day raging in Mexico and 
South America. There is food enough, an ahxindance 
of it; great storehouses filled with it; churches and- 
catliedrals in abundance, where black-robed priests 
minister, not only on the Lord's day, but every morn- 
ing in the year, dispensing bread to the starving souls ; 
hut it is food for swine, and swine feed upon it, and 
devour it with greediness; but oli ! what tasteless 
food for a Christian who has for years lived on the 
fruit which grows upon the tree of divine knowledge 
— God's living word. 

False teachers are in our midst, every day dispens- 
ing bread — adulterated bread, falsehood and truth 
intermingled — Universalists, Unitarians, Spiritual- 
ists, and hosts of others, feeding the liungry with 
what appears to give a temporary satisfaction, but 
cannot save a soul from death. 

''^ And he went and joined himself to a citizen of 
a far country^ This was the position lield by tlie 
publican. He had become a servant of Caesar's. In 
the antitype, the prodigal sells himself to the world, 
and becomes a servant of the world. The publican 
was in the employ of Pontius Pilate, or if he lived 
in Galilee, he was in the service of Herod, both being 
officers of the Koman empire. It may also have 
been possible that the publicans had more or less 
been induced to observe the worship of the pagans 
by whom they were employed, false gods having 
been introduced, as they had been in former times, 



158 THE PHAKiSEia 

among the Samaritans. If such was the case, then 
thev could at once see the ruo-o-ed contrast between 
the worship of tliese heathen idols and tlie worship 
of the true and livino^ God. 

This new master, it appears, does not feel the 
famine himself — at least he has an abundance of 
Gentile food. He has a drove of swine and plenty 
to feed them on ; it is only the poor Jew who suffers 
with famine. .And now this new master sends him 
to feed swine. Oh ! how deffradinoj to the son of a 
proud Jewish nol)leman. No employment in the 
world so degrading. The very touch was to him 
pollution. How soon his fine garments are torn and 
bespotted with filth. His fine robe is not only torn 
to rao^s, but he suffers with hunirer. He would fain 
have satisfied his hunger with the swine's food, but 
no man gave unto liim. How eagerly the swine de- 
voured their husks, but it afforded no satisfaction to 
him. Poor and naked, perishing in sight of food, he 
could not eat. Oh, for one morsel of the bread of 
heaven now! Oh, how Ions; will men desire to feed 
the immortal soul with the food of the serpent! 
Falsehood and blasphemy and deceit may be de- 
voured eagerly by Satan's swine, but these can never 
satisfy the longings of an immortal soul that has 
once tasted angel's food. Christ is that bread. To 
the lost sheep of Israel is He sent. 

Just here, when the prodigal is in his state of 
lowest misery and degradation, tliere is an important 
point which calls our attention. It is this : that 
while in his father's house he longed for this situation, 
and now he has it: his wish is gratified. We are 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 159 

told tliat the Israelites were fed with angel's food 
while in the wilderness, and jet they longed for the 
flesh-pots of Egypt; and the inspired apostle says 
tliat "in heart they went back to Egypt." It was 
just because the Israelites longed for the liberty and 
freedom of the Gentile nations aronnd them tliat 
they were delivered over to their idolatry. It was 
because they desired the freedom of the Koman 
empire that they were delivered over to the Roman 
masters; and then, when they rebelled against their 
masters, they were overcome, and tliose who were 
not slain were carried away captives to strange lands, 
only to serve as slaves, beholding in triumphal pro- 
cessions the wealth and sacred vessels of their temple 
and country publicly exhibited as relics of what tliey 
had been, and as mementos of tlieir defeat, and now 
symbols of their degradation and misery. And then 
to see themselves and their childi'en sold as slaves to 
serve these same hated Roman dogs was but to be 
placed in the same position occupied by the prodigal 
when feeding swine. They liad to come daily in 
contact with those that they held as impure, partake 
of their unclean food, even serve in preparing and 
cooking it, and wait upon their tables. The sons 
and daughters of tliese very same Pharisees, who com- 
plained tliat Christ associated with publicans, were 
carried away to Rome by Titus, and there, in a 
strange land, made to dish up swine's flesh and serve 
at the tables of their unclean masters, starving until 
they were compelled to partake of the unclean food 
out of polluted vessels. Oh ! what suffering this law 
of prohibition entailed upon the children of those 



160 THE PHARISEE 

who said to our Lord, "We are Moses' disciples." 
We notice on the part of Christ in these parables an 
indication that He would have them conciliate the 
Homans rather than to blindly resist them. He 
does not condemn the publicans for havino* entered 
into the service of the Romans, but rather encourages 
than condemns them. This becomes more apparent, 
as we shall see, in the advice He gave them in closing 
the parable of the unjust steward; and in the end, 
He finally broke down the partition wall which 
separated the Jew from the Gentile by entirely re- 
moving the law of carnal ordinances. Here, then, 
we see that, prophetically, not the publican who con- 
ciliated the Homans, but the legally righteous Jew — 
the scribe and the Pharisee — became, in the end, tlie 
prodigal son, with no hope of return but by exchang- 
ing their legal righteousness for the righteousness of 
Christ. And even down to the present day, after 
eighteen centuries of tedious wandering, ever tor- 
mented by the presence of unclean beasts, the dog 
and the hog, the flesh of the latter in some form 
mingled with almost every article of food, while in 
every transaction they have been compelled to receive 
and pocket a coin bearing on the one side the image 
of a foreign king, and on the other that of a heatlien 
srod: nevertheless, behold what an intense lust is 
manifested by the remnant of this people for the 
mammon of unrighteousness, (supposing gold to be 
what is intended by this mammon) — feeding npon 
Gentile husks, earnestly laboring for and hoarding 
np that which purchases the food of Gentile kings, 
and bears their "image and superscription." 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 161 

The husks that the swine did eat is now univer- 
sally conceded to be the long, sweet, and very crooked 
(lience z^/>«r;«==little horns) pods of the carob tree, 
which grows abnndantly in Eastern countries. I 
have seen large quantities of it collected in the Ar- 
gentine Kepnblic as good for horses and cattle. A 
light, rather pleasant bread is made from it; also a 
refreshing drink, used in case of sickness. 

''He came to himself.'''' He begins to meditate. 
Here we have the first step in the prodigal's return : 
he came to himself. Kow, I ask, what was this 
coming to himself, but a returning to a former state 
of mind which he possessed before he went astray? 
Love to his father, respect for his government, and 
love for the home he had abandoned, and especially 
a longing desire to once more partake of his father's 
table and be clothed by liis provident care. Does 
this look as though the soul of this prodigal was 
created and born in Satan's kingdom, and must first 
be converted from that kingdom in order to become 
a member of God. Most assuredly not. 

The publican was born in the kingdom of Isi-ael, 
the visible kingdom of God ; and yet he was literally 
born under the dominion of Caesar, as well as in the 
land of Judea. There was a higher power pretend- 
ing to claim him as its citizen — a power running 
contrary to his birthright in father Abraham. In 
this respect the wdiole Jewish nation had become a 
prodigal. They were all under the dominion of the 
Koman empire — all paying tribute to Csesar, and all 
daily using his money. And they had been in this 
condition since the days of captivity in Babylon. 



162 THE PHARISEE 

To such an extent was this carried that tlie chief 
priests bought their positions from the Roman gov- 
ernment, and the whole temple service was carried 
on under the protection of the Koman rulers. What, 
then, may be asked, was tlie difference between tlie 
Pharisee and the publican? I answer, just tliis: 
the publican recognized the Roman authority as 
legal — ordained of God (Rouj. xiii. 1), while the 
Pharisee recognized it as a usurped tyranny. The 
one collected his taxes with a clear conscience, feel- 
ing that it was a just tribute which God had imposed 
upon them by placing the Roman government over 
them; wliile the otlier paid his share under protest, 
not feeling tliat it was a just debt, but a compulsory 
robbery — asserting liimself as a son of Al)raliam, 
who had never been in servitude to any one. (John 
viii. 33.) These two persons well represent the 
saint and sinner of to-day. One confesses his sins 
aiid is willing to kiss the rod— submit to all the 
punishments whicli God sees fit to impose upon him, 
either temporary or eternal; while the otlier ignores 
his sins, looks upon their punishment as an arbitrary 
use of power, and with a cold, hard, rebellious heart 
submits to the temporary as a compulsive necessity 
from which he cannot escape, and laughs at the idea 
of future retribution. 

But the time is coming when their robe of legal 
ris^hteousness will not avail them. The Roman 
rulers (Gentile swine) had already torn great rents 
in it, which they were vainly endeavoring to conceal 
by casting the blame upon the publicans. John the 
Baptist, and Christ Himself, in His personal mis- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 163 

sioD, had despoiled it of its beantj. "Except your 
righteousness exceed the righteousness of tlie scribes 
and Phai'isees, ye can in no wise" enter the kingdom 
of heaven." The rigliteousness of the law must 
yield before the righteousness of the gospel. 

''^ I will arise and go to 7ny father ^ The Pela- 
gians claimed that this was a pi'oof that man made 
the first effort, and tliat God lielps him. Calvinists 
claim that God first draws man — that the first move 
is upon the part of God, and that without divine 
assistance man cannot help himself. This is one 
of tlie fundamental doctrines of the Presbyterian 
Church. We base our views upon such passages as, 
'*Xo man can come to Me except the Fatlier Avhich 
hath sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the 
last day;" "without Me ye can do nothing;" "all 
that the Father giveth Me shall come to me;" "no 
man can come to Me except it were given him of 
My Fathei'." This doctrine is stated in many places 
in Scripture, and is also taught by analogy. Israel 
could not come out of Egypt until God sent Moses 
to bring them out. They could not drive the Ca- 
naanites out except the Lord of hosts commanded 
their armies. Tliey could not return from the cap- 
tivity^ in Babylon until God put it into the heart of 
Babyloirs king to send them away, and He raised 
up men to lead them back to their own land. Tlie 
same thing is taught in these parables. The lost 
sheep could not return to the flock, nor even make 
the first move in that direction. The lost piece of 
money could not restore itself to the woman's pocket, 
l^or is the statement here, "I will arise and go to 



164: THE PHARISEE 

my father," a contradiction to this doctrine. We 
have ah'eady seen tliat the resohition which he . 
formed, to arise and go to his father, was not the 
first step. His very first step was coming to himself. 
Our first parents partook of the fruit of tlie tree of 
knowledge of good and evil, and their eyes were 
opened. This opening of the eyes was a divine 
work. Tlie result was that they found themselves 
naked — lost to holiness. Tlie prodigal had now 
partaken of good at home and evil abroad, and now 
his eyes are opened. He comes to himself. This 
is a divine work. The I'esult is, he finds himself 
ragged — lost to purity. If the Father had not first 
shown him that he was lost, he would never have 
been drawn to the Father. The divine image can 
only be restored by the power that created it. H 
the Father draws him not, he will be satisfied with 
swine's food. 

Coming to himself — finding himself lost — was the 
first step towards regeneration; but would it not be 
better to call this a generation of the Spirit^ rather 
than reojeneration itself? I do not think that we 
can claim that he was fairly regenerated until he was 
restored to his father's household. Kegenerated 
while in the service of a citizen of Satan's kingdom 
he could not be. Kegenerated while far away from 
his father's pure home he could not be. Regene- 
rated while daubed with the filth of unclean swine 
he could not be. Regenerated while he was clothed 
with the tattered rags of the legal righteousness of the 
Mosaic law he could-not be. Taking these things into 
consideration, I feel fully justified in using the term 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 165 

regeneration in its true scriptural sense, applying it 
to sanctification (as far as complete in this life); and 
applying to this first beginning of the Spirit's work 
in the heart the more appropriate term, generation 
of the Spirit. "Coming to liimself" is a conviction 
of his lost condition. He is not saved until he has 
passed through the portal of liis father's mansion. 
That portal is Cln-ist. When the prodigal says, " I 
■ v^dll arise and go to my father," we observe a marked 
contrast in this parable to those whicli precede it. 
The stupid sheep could not restore itself to the fold. 
It had to be carried back by the shepherd. The lost 
piece of money could not return to the woman's pos- 
session until she had searched for it. The leper 
could not cleanse himself of his leprosy, but he could 
fulfil the requirements of the ceremonial law as pre- 
scribed in his case. The blind man could not cure 
his own blindness, but he could "go and wash in the 
pool of Siloam." And so with the prodigal. He 
could not restore himself to the heirship. He could 
not make himself a son of God through the gospel; 
but having already known the law — ;tasted and found 
that it was good — he could go to his father, and ask 
to be restored to servitude to the law w4th a clean 
conscience. The rest is by grace a free gift. 

^''Father, I have sinned^ Confession of sin, hum- 
ble confession, is what God^ requires. Without this 
it is useless to go to the Father. "Father, forgive 
us our sins" is the first and only prayer that will 
make us reconciled to God. 

But who are the "hired servants" spoken of here? 
These could not be sons of Abraham. The idea ex- 



166 THE PHARISEE 

pressed in the parable is, that the two sons are sons 
of Abraham, but tliis the hired servants were not. 
Servants among the Jews in times of prosperity were 
usually foreigners — Gentile proselytes ; and it was 
a prevailing opinion that when tlie Messiah would 
coine that the wliole Gentile world would be in some 
sort of servitude to them. Is not the idea expressed 
by the prodigal, then, that the father would put him 
on a level with the Gentile proselytes who lived in- 
his own house and served him t Do not make a son 
of me, but receive me as one of these Gentiles. And 
is not that the only way in which a Jew, at the pre- 
sent day, can enter the kingdom of God ? This, to 
some extent, was the position of the publican. He 
looked upon the Gentile rulers, not as enemies, but 
servants whom God had chosen, and under whose 
rule the nation was more prosperous and happy than 
it liad ever been before, and he accepts the position 
of living with them rather than to rise in open re- 
bellion, or do as the Pharisees did — cherish rebellion 
in their hearts while outwardly professing the utmost 
friendship for the Romans. I am under the impres- 
sion, however, that when the prodigal speaks of the 
hired servants, that lie has reference to a great change 
which his nation would undergo in the near future. 
The promise had been given to them through Moses, 
" Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a 
holy nation,'' and this promise had never been ful- 
tilled ; but now the Messiah was about to come, who 
would "sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He 
shall purify the sins of Levi, and purge them as gold 
and silver, and they shall offer unto the Lord an of- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 167 

fering in righteousness." Tlie Pharisees and scribes 
liad lip to this time acknowledged themselves ser- 
vants of the law; but the time was now^ near at liand 
when tliej would become a royal priestliood, lience 
their strict observance of all ceremonial righteous- 
ness, they being already the teachers and guides of 
the people. In the near future all illiterate persons, 
together with all Gentile nations, who were to be- 
come proselytes, would occupy the court and be ser- 
vants to them. The idea of the prodigal, then, was, 
tliat if he returned God would receive liim as a ser- 
vant, to labor in the field and sleep in the court, but 
tliat all claim to heirship he liad forfeited, and made 
no pretensions to recognition in the coming kingdom. 
Were this not the case, I cannot understand wh}" he 
should use the word uto^= son, and not -£xvov = cliild, 
as in the 31st verse: for virtuallv neither lie nor his 
elder brother could be so?is of God until the great 
change should take place which would make tliem a 
holy priesthood in the coming kingdom. 

In order that we may get the full import of the 
parable, we must remember that Christ looks upon 
the heart, and may receive a repentant prodigal, 
while the faithful apprentice to Jewish law, on serv- 
ing his time, may be rejected. It is the humility of 
the prodigal that receives Christ's approbation. He 
would come back as a servant, take his place in the 
court amid the children and servants — a servant, not 
of sin, but of the law. 

" His father saw hhn when he was yet a great way 
offP That loving Fatlier's eyes had never been off 
his erring son. Through all his wanderings that 



168 The Pharisee 

Fatlier's Spirit bad followed him. It was that kind 
Fatlier who had hedi^ed in his wav while in a strangle 
land, and it was that Father who had afflicted him for 
liis own good. It was that Father who had bron^jht 
liim back again to himself, and put it into bis heart 
to return to tlie parental roof. It was that Father 
in the Holy Spirit that had nerv^ed him to the ex- 
tremel}' difficult task of confessing his guilt, and that 
Father now on liis return bestows upon him the kiss 
of reconciliation, even before the confession had been 
made. Without the magnetic influence of that Fa- 
ther's Spirit, he would have perished amid the pol- 
luting swine, and it would have been the very fact 
that that Father's Spirit continually strove with him 
that would have turned his destruction into a hell. 
Without tlie strivings of this Father's Spirit in the 
breast of every sinner, I should most certainly accept 
the erronous doctrine of the annihilation of the soul 
of tlie wicked ; but it is because men resist this 
Spirit that they are punished in the eternal world. 
And here, again, we may inquire, was this kiss of 
reconciliation regeneration ? I think tliat we may 
answer that it was not. Still wearing the old gar- 
ment polluted with swine's filth, he was still under 
the old law. Repentance, confession, and reconcili- 
ation all come under the old law. He could not be 
regenerated in the true Scriptural sense of the word 
until his garment was changed, and he had passed 
over into the new dispensation. Regeneration does 
not mean to become a servant of the law, but a son 
of God through tlie gospel. 

''' Bring forth thehest rohe and put it on himr 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 169 

This may be translated \.\\q first robe. Alford trans- 
lates it ''Hhe first and hestT This was not such a 
garment as he had worn before going away; nor was 
it such as his brother had on, he being still clothed 
in the les^al rio-hteousness of the old cov^enant. The 
robe which is now given to him is the robe of the 
new covenant — the righteousness of Christ. And 
now I say, this change of garment was regeneration 
— the exchange of the old dispensation for the new — 
Moses for Christ. This change of garment is a sym- 
bol of regeneration — passing out of the old kingdom 
into the new. 

" Pat a ring on his handP By the ring we un- 
derstand the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit 
seals^ and a ring in the East was not worn for orna- 
ment, but for sealing. Our custom of w^earing rings 
on the fingers merely for ornament is altogether 
foreign to the idea expressed here. Any article of 
this' kind which the Scriptures may speak of must 
have a useful object in view, and not merely that of 
gratifying any selfish pride or taste. Every article 
of dress, with the ancient Jew, was significant — typi- 
cal or symbolical; and so we may say of every cus- 
tom, habit, or occupation. A ring was not worn to 
gratify selfish pride, as with us. Dancing, for in- 
stance, is often spoken of in the Scriptures ; but the 
Jews did not dance for self -gratification, as people 
do in our day. All was done to the glory of God. 

As a householder was supposed to have continual 
need of a seal in transacting his business, it was worn 
in the form of a ring upon, the finger, as a place of 
convenience. As the Holy Spirit, the Comforter 



I'rO THE PHARISEE 

under tlie new covenant, (not the Spirit in a limited 
form presiding over, as in the old dispensation,) is 
alwaj's tliat which seals, we can have no doubt as to 
the meaning of this ring. Paul's words are very ap- 
propriate here: "After that ye heard the word of 
truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Hol}^ Ghost of 
promise." The ring indicates that tlie father had 
imparted to him a portion of his own power, and 
authority to transact business for him, and seal his 
public documents. This was precisely the power 
that was delegated to the apostles on the day of 
Pentecost by tlie appearance of the Holy Ghost. 

''Shoes on his feet. "^^ Shoes were not worn in the 
East except by kings and noblemen. The sandals 
worn by the great mass of the people were a symbol 
of servitude. Slaves went barefoot. Strangers com- 
ing on a journey, servants laboring in the field, as 
well as otlier members of tlie family, left their san- 
dals outside of the door, while the shoes of the noble- 
man were worn inside. Having been the servant of 
a foreigner, the prodigal probably returned baref jot, 
or wearino' the svmbol of his servitude, and is now 
made a nobleman. The other brother, who is in 
the field, doubtless wore sandals, being as yet a ser- 
vant, although apparently an heir. The shoes are 
a symbol of the freedom of the gospel. " Having 
the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of 
peace." We have here, then, in the shoe and sandal, 
symbols of the two dispensations — the law^ and the 
gospel. 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 171 

^' Bring hither the fatted calf and kill itP T\^liat 
is meant by tlie fatted calf? Tertiillian, and others 
of tlie early fathers, saw in this calf a symbol of the 
Eucharist or Lord's Snpper. I think that it has a 
higher meaning than this. The ox, to the Jew, was 
ever a symbol of servitude, being the companion of 
his labors in tlie field. The Jews were servants 
of the law. The killing of the fatted calf, then, was 
virtually a symbol of tlie abrogation of this servitude, 
and a declaration of independence. This now gives 
us new light on the meaning of the wedding gar- 
ment spoken of in the Scriptures, as well as of the 
declaration, "He took upon Himself the form of a 
servant, and was made in tlie likeness of man; and 
being formed in fashion as a man, He humbled Him- 
self and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross." *' Christ onr Passover is sacrificed 
for us.-' 

Observe here an important point. The father 
does not clothe the son himself, or kill the fatted 
calf with his own hand, but he commands his ser- 
vants to do this for him. I understand by tliis, that 
when one who has been brought up under Bible in- 
struction wanders away, and returns, that he is first 
to put himself under the ministry of the Word. 
This was done by the early converts after the day 
of Pentecost. The Church cannot provide the gar- 
ment, but she can assist the convert in putting it on. 
The Church cannot make the sacrificial table, but 
slie can prepare it under the Father's directions. 
Before the resurrection of our Lord, all were ser- 



172 THE PHARISEE 

vants, even John the Baptist and the disciples of our 
Lord. These were called on to do these duties then. 
The heirs (not to the exclusion of the servants,) are 
called upon to perforin these duties now. After the 
coming of tlie Comforter, the gospel niinistry takes 
the lead in this important work, not murmuring that 
a wanderer has returned, but rejoicing that a brother 
has been restored and saved from death and hell. 

Anotlier point of importance, which should not be 
forgotten, is, that in tlie former parables the search 
was without. The sheep could not return to the 
fold, nor the lost piece of monej restore itself — they 
had to be searched after. But the prodigal returns 
because there was a Divine light searching within 
hin). Here, then, we again see the characteristics of 
the two dispensations. The state of discipleship is 
an outward influence brought to bear upon the heart. 
The new dispensation is a divine life within, leading 
the son of the Jewish nobleman from the hog-pen up 
to a seat at his father's table, and in the antitj^pe 
leading the sinner from the fllth and pollution of 
Satan's kingdom to a tlirone in heaven. This influ- 
ence was commenced under the old dispensation, and 
brought to maturity under tlie new, and it is that 
imperfect part of the work only before full sanctifi- 
cation which is presented in this parable. We have, 
then, in tlie three parables, 1st, the minister's inter- 
est in bringing a wanderer back ; 2nd, the Church's 
interest in seeing a lost one restored; and 3rd, God's 
interest in the salvation of His children. 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 173 

THE ELDER BROTHER. 

A7e now commence upon another part of tliis par- 
able — that of the son who remained at home. We 
have tlins far been treating of tlie prodigal who 
wandered away and returned ; but as our Lord at 
the commencement of the parable had told us that 
there were tivo sons, He now goes on to speak of the 
other. 

" The elder son was in the fields This shows 
that although he may have been an lieu*, he yet 
labored as a servant, according to Paul's words: 
^'The heir, as lona* as he is a child, differeth nothino* 
from a servant, though he may be lord of all." We 
therefore find him in the fields, perhaps cultivating 
the land, or attending to his father's flocks. 

As he ''''drew nigh he heard ynusic and dancing.''^ 
In eastern countries music and dancing were per- 
formed by musicians and dancers employed for thei 
purpose, not so much to amuse the spectators as to 
instruct them. The' family did not engage in the 
dancing. Their mourning was also, and is to the 
present day, performed by others. This is what Jere- 
miah refers to when he savs, " Call in the mournino: 
women." (Jer. ix. 17.) Every domestic affair of 
life was supposed to have some religious object in 
view. Psalms were sung or chanted, accompanied 
with music and dancing, or mourning (as the cir- 
cumstances required) in order that those psalms 
might the more readily be committed to memory, 
and their lessons be the more impressive. This is 
the true way to glorify God in our daily walk and 



1 74 the"pharisee 

conversation, not tliat God needs our praise, but that 
we may be benefited. Tlie direct object on the part 
of man is to glorify God; wliile the object on the 
part of God is that man himself should be instructed 
and benefited. 

''^ He called one of the servants and asked what 
these things 'nieant^ We notice here something 
wrong. He was suspicious that something was be- 
ing done which did not suit him. He is betj'innino' 
to lose confidence in his father, perhaps thinking 
that his father could do something tliat would not be 
to his interest. And now what a perfect exhibition 
of what poor liuman nature ever lias done, and ever 
will do, in such a case ! Instead of going directly to 
his father at once, where lie would liave learned tlie 
whole truth, and nothing but tlie trutli, he calls one 
of the servants, and gets a distorted account from 
him, which*, combined with his own suspicions, led 
him at once to look upon his fatlier as his enemy. 

'''And he was angry ^ and would not go inP His 
father now comes out to remonstrate with him, when 
lie at once compares his own legal life with that of 
his brother. But he will not even recognize him as 
his brother. " This thy sonT In a reproachful, 
scornful way he gathers up his unpolluted robes, for 
fear lest contact with the now cast off garments of 
the tender of swine might possibly pollute him. 

" ^Shich has devoured thy living^ It was the 
father's righteousness which he had bestowed upon 
his son that the prodigal had squandered. '* With 
harlotsP The prophets ever speak of foreign gods 
and foreign worship as idolatry. 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 175 

^^As soon as he is corned He does not say re- 
turned^ as of one resiiiiiing his place, but as of a 
foreigner who had no right thei*e — an intruder, tres- 
passing on the rights of others. 

^^Thou hast killed for hvm^^ not a kid or a lamb, 
bnt the choicest fatted calf in the stall. Now, all 
this was said upon the supposition that the prodigal 
had been restored to the same place tliat he had oc- 
cupied before he went away. What would he liave 
said if he had known that the father had made a 
nobleman of him, giving him the finest robe, a seal 
ring, and a nobleman's shoes? 

^' Son^ thou art ever with me, and all that 1 have 
is thine."^^ We do not find the father here answering 
his son with severit3\ He manifested no anger, and 
gently remonstrates with him. He gives him to un- 
derstand plainly that he is his brother in a father's 
love, and consequently an heir of the kingdom. He 
is entirely oblivious to the prodigal's sins, and in- 
tensely alive to tlie one great fact, that this son was 
dead and is now alive again, "^e xoas deadP The 
whole period in which the prodigal was sinning 
against liis father is now in tlie grave of annihila- 
tion ; it is gone, entirely unknown, and notliing re- 
mains in its place but a covered-up and forgotten 
grave. 

We now come to the question, "Who were the 
friends to whom the elder brother refers, when lie 
says, ' Thou never gavest me a kid that I might make 
merry with my friends?'" Those friends of the 
elder brother, it appears, did not belong to the fam- 
ily. They were not of the seed of Abraham. There 



176 



THE PHARISEE 



Avere but two brothers — tlie Pharisee and publican. 
I can find none to fill that condition so well as 
tlie ofiicers of the Roman government; and it is true 
that the Pliarisees were guilty of the very same sin 
for which thej^ condemned the publican. As 1 have 
already remarked, tliey bought their cliief ofiices, 
especially that of high priest, from the Roman 
government, and paid for them in Roman coin. 
When the Pharisee, therefore, condemned tlie pub- 
lican, he did just what an unjust judge of the pre- 
sent day would do, when he condemns a poor man to 
prison for stealing a sheep, and then quietly, deliber- 
ately puts a thousand dollars of government funds 
into his own pocket, because he — fortunately for 
himself, and unfortunately for us — occupies a posi- 
tion where the law cannot touch him. 

Mind, that the question here does not hinge upon 
the legality of conciliating the Romans, (this was 
right enough, as we shall see when we come to ex- 
amine the next parable,) but upon the hypocrisy of 
the Pharisees in excluding the publicans from reli- 
gious worship because they gathered the Roman 
taxes, while they themselves recognized the autho- 
rity of the Roman government, even publicly de- 
claring "We have no king but Caesar." 

It was a standing rule in the Roman empire, that 
when they conquered a nation that nation must 
receive the religion of the empire, and that all tem- 
ples, and temple ornaments and sacred utensils, should 
be given over to the use of their heathen gods. They 
had ever enforced this, except in Judea, and had 
often tried it there, but had been restrained by a 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 1T7 

divine providence. When tlie elder brotlier asks a 
kid to feast witli his friends, he would do just what 
he accuses his brother of when lie charges him witli 
squandering his fathei''s substance with liarlots. He 
would give half a kid to the Romans with very good 
grace, provided lie could feast on the other half liim- 
self ; he would take the worship of his fathers temple 
and share it witli the Romans, if he could but enjoy 
half of it himself. If the publican had paid half 
the taxes he collected over to the Pharisee, he would 
never have been excluded from the temple and syna- 
gogue service. That great idol Self wd^ the god he 
worsl/ipped. 

The parable closes just where the history of the 
Jewish nation leaves us at the time when Christ 
pronounced this discourse. The Messiah had come, 
and the fatted calf was about to be killed. The 
publican receives Him and enters into the feast, while 
the parable leaves the father discussing the question 
without with his elder son, whether he would go in 
or not. And here I think I can see the full force 
of the expression, "his father came out and entreated 
him." After Christ's crucifixion the command was 
given to the apostles to preach the gospel first to 
the Jews. The word apostle means one sent out. 
They were sent out by the Father, or rather the 
Father Himself going out by the Holy Spirit in the 
apostles. He entreated the Jews to come into His 
spiritual kingdom, but they would not; and so re- 
maining out, they are to-day the prodigal son, feeding 
upon swine's food among all the nations of the 
earth. 



178 THE PHARISEE 

Now, an important question, which has puzzled 
theologians in all ages, I tiiink is solved by the view 
wliich I have here presented. It is this: "Was the 
righteousness of those intended to be represented by 
the elder brother real, or only assumed? If real, 
how are we to account for liis treatment of tlie peni- 
tent prodigal? If assumed, how are we to account 
for his expression, 'I liave never transgressed thy 
connnandment,' which the father does not contra- 
dict, but contirms by saying, 'Son, tliou art ever 
with me, and all I liave is thine' ?'■ 

I do not liesitate in answering that his righteous- 
ness was real ; l)ut it was tlie ceremonial righteous- 
ness of tlie law, and not the righteousness of the 
gospel. The question as to whether he possessed 
any moral righteousness, or did not possess any, 
does not enter here, and must be left entirel}^ out of 
consideration. The decision of that question is still 
in the future, and will be determined bj the conclu- 
sion he arrives at conceiming the Father's entreaties, 
as to whether he will go in and partake of the gospel 
fruit or not. He is now in the condition of a student 
of a school just before examination day arrives. Evi- 
dence has been given that he has been faithful in all 
the outward requirements of the school, but the ex- 
amination day will pi-ove whe.thcr he has learned 
anything or not. 

Many suppose that our Lord represents undei' the 
figure of the elder brother the scribes and Pharisees, 
not as they were, hypocrites, but as they should have 
been. But this is assuming a ground that is alto- 
gether too broad; that is, that all the scribes and 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 179 

Pliarisees were liypocrites. This is all wrong. Tlie 
facts of the case are, that virtually the elder brother 
was the representative of two classes. The elder 
brother represents the legally righteous among the 
Jews, a portion of which was composed of morally 
righteous persons, and a portion were hypocrites. 
To condemn all the Pharisees as hypocrites is as 
absurd as it would be to assume that all the publi- 
cans were morally righteous. Christ's object in 
these parables is, first, to appeal to their pity as 
shepherds over the flock of Israel; second, their 
sense of duty as a cimrch; and third, their sympathy 
with God in the interest He takes in the conversion 
of sinners; and in doing so He refers to them as one 
body, representing the synagogue or church of Israel; 
and then He closes His discourse by showing them 
tlieir neglect of duty, and presents them in all their 
horrible deformity in the character of the rich man, 
and there publicly and wisely condemns them for 
their want of charity to the poor publican in the 
form of Lazarus lying at tlieir gate covered with 
rags and leprosy. The Pharisees were high church 
men, many of whom had carried their reverence for 
Moses so far that they had ceased to be disciples of 
Moses, and had in reality become idolaters, worship- 
ping Moses instead of being instructed by him. "Lo, 
these many years do I serve thee." Self-aggrandize- 
ment, looking for a reward — the servant expecting 
his pay. Their own selfish interests had rendered 
them blind to the interests of the publicans. Christ 
called these the "children of Satan;" '*ye are of 
your father the devil." 



180 THE PHARISEE 

Now, the great feast to which the prodigal has 
been received, and to whicli the elder brother is in- 
vited, is tlie gospel feast. It is prepared expressly 
for the legally righteous person, as well as for the 
repentant sinner, and both are invited to partake of 
it, and those who partake live. Heretofore the 
elder brother had been serving in the field, that is, 
he was a servant under the law. Hot a kid, but a 
fatted calf, was killed for him, just as much as it 
was for his brother; and his salvation now depends, 
not upon the service he had heretofore rendered, 
(which was valid only as it was recognized by the 
fatlier as having been performed in obedience and 
love to a father's will, but worthless if performed 
through fear of punishment or for self-aggrandize- 
ment, with the expectation of a reward,) but upon 
his acceptance of the father's invitation. Heretofore 
he had been a servant of the law, but he is now in- 
vited to enter into the joy of his Lord — the blessings 
of the gospel. True, he says tliat he had not had a 
kid to feast with liis friends, but then he had feasted 
sumptuously every day with the very best of all 
friends — liis own father. Not one, but a thousand 
kids had been slain fol* his especial benefit. 

In answer to his request for a kid to make merry 
with his friends, liis father answers, "Thou art ever 
with me ;" that is, I am more to thee than all thy 
friends. His friends were pagans, or, as he himself 
termed them in derision. Gentile dogs. It was this 
desire to share the kid with his friends that had 
carried Israel away captive to Babylon, and now 
made him a bondsman to the Koman empire. And 



AJSfD THE PUBLICAN. 181 

was he not even now literally sharing the kid with 
liis friends, while Roman officers were living on the 
fat of the land, and sending the tribiite-inoney which 
the publicans collected to Caesar's treasury at Home? 
If tliis was not sharing tlie kid with his friends, I 
know not what was. 

''All that 1 have is thineP Not a kid, but the 
fatted calf. Not tlie fatted calf alone, but my table, 
my name, my glory, my kingdom — all, all are 
thine. Why ask for a kid when an empire is thine ? 
Why should you begrudge your brother a share at 
my table when all the riches of the universe belong 
to you as well as to him \ 

Many of tliese legally righteous Jews accepted 
the invitation, and entered the gospel kingdom; 
while to others God's messengers are compelled to 
speak as did Faul, "Seeing ye put it from you, and 
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, so we 
turn to the Gentiles." 

The elder brother to-day is that person who has 
from youth maintained an honorable life, has per- 
haps continued faithful to the church and Sabbath- 
school and their teachings, has been baptized by his 
parents. (I mean baptism itself — the baptism of the 
soul with the water of life — and not the outward 
ceremony alone.) He may have been obedient to 
his profession, and been admitted to the sacrament 
of the Lord's supper, but has done all this either 
through fear of punishment or for purposes of self- 
aggrandizement, the hope of reward, and is not yet 
willing to recognize in spirit and in truth that he is 
responsible for his brother's keeping; and is as yet 



182 THE PHARISEE 

unwilling to pray to the Father, "Not m?/ will, but 
thine^ be done," althongh it exalts that brother to 
a throne and casts himself into a dungeon. The 
prodigal has been led to feel his own degradation 
and misery, and can now sympathize with an erring 
brother, and feel that his care is his own. The 
gospel feast is not fear thi-ough a conscious sense of 
duty, but liberty and obedience througli pure, un- 
adulterated love. 

In one prominent point we observe that the 
parable falls short of the antitype. The analogy is 
not perfect, because a nobleman, limited in his wealth, 
cannot represent the Almighty, in whose unlimited 
power is the wealtli of all worlds. An Almighty 
Father may give to His sons a million kingdoms, 
and yet have a million more to give. The prodigal 
squandered one inheritance, but another of infinitely 
more value is left to him. The Jews have squandered 
their temporal inheritance, but if they will only come 
to Christ the spiritual shall be theirs. The iirst is 
gone, and cannot be restored. The material Jerusa- 
lem is not to be rebuilt. Christ's people can never 
enter again into servitude under Moses and labor in 
the field. Such a view only betrays your ignorance 
of the Scriptures. The parable closes just at that 
state of affairs which was then transpirino^ in the 
liistory of the Jewish nation. The great sacrifice 
was about to be consummated on Calvary. The 
parable does not tell us whether the elder brother 
was reconciled and went in with his father to the 
feast, or whether he took the prodigal's place without. 
We must look elsewhere for a continuance of the 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 183 

narrative, for it must be remerabered that not all the 
publicans received Christ, neither did all the Phari- 
sees reject Him. We find in the Acts of tlie Apostles 
a very full record of tliat branch of the Pharisees 
wliich united with the gospel church. The brethren 
in Jerusalem told Paul, "Thou seest, brother, how 
many myriads (tens of thousands) there are among 
the Jews of them which have believed; and they are 
all zealous of tlie law." (Acts xxi. 20.) Being 
zealous of tlie Mosaic law is very strong testimony 
that they were Pharisees. Paul himself was a 
Pharisee, and the "Pharisee which believed" formed 
a prominent element in tlie first council held in 
Jerusalem. (Acts xv. 5.) 



THE CHILDEEN" OF THE CHUECH. 

One, at least, if not t/ie peculiar feature of tlie 
Baptist Church, which distinguishes it from other 
denominations, is that of a purely regenerated mem- 
bership — understanding by regeneration those wlio 
are sanctified and made members of Christ's spiritual 
kingdom by tlie work of the Holy Ghost upon their 
hearts. 

The Presbyterian view may be best expressed in 
the language of Presbyterian authors. Dr. William 
A. Stearns, President of Amherst College, sa3'S in 
his work on "Infant Baptism": "Baptized children 
are in the same enclosure with the parents, and are 
equally members of the Church, long before they 



181: THE PHAEISEE 

make any profession of their faith. Properly speak- 
ing, the question can nev^er come up, whether they 
shall join the Charch. They belong already, and a 
profession of religion with them is simply their own 
acknowledo-ment of this fact and the obli'ojations it 
implies.'' Dr. Charles Hodge says: "The status of 
baptized children is not a vague or uncertain one, 
according to the doctrine of the Reformed Church. 
They are professing Christians; they belong pre- 
sumptively to the number of the elect." That they 
are members of the Church, I agree with Dr. Hodge; 
but that they are professing Christians^ in the sense 
of having made an open profession of faith in a risen 
and glorified Savior, I must deny. They belong to 
the court, and not to the sanctuary (or sanctified). 

The Westminster Confession of Faith says: "Chil- 
dren born within the pale of the visible Church, and 
dedicated to God in baptism, are under the inspection 
and government of the Cliurch, and are to be taught 
to read and repeat the Catechism, the Apostles' 
Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. They are to be 
taught to pray, to abhor sin, to fear God, and to 
obey the Lord Jesus Christ; and when they come 
to years of discretion, if they are free from scan- 
dal, appear sober and steady, and to have sufficient 
knowledge to discern the Lord's body, they ought 
to be informed it is their duty and their privilege 
to come to the Lord's Supper." {Directory of Wor- 
ship^ cliap. 9, sec. 1.) "All baptized persons are 
members of the Churcli, are under its care, and 
subject to its government and discipline; and when 
they have arrived at the years of discretion, they 



AND THE PrBLTCAN. 3 85 

are bound to perform all the duties of Church mem- 
bers." {Discipline, chap. 1, sec. 6.) 

A clear statement of tiie opposite view of the case 
may be found in the following, from a Baptist au- 
thor, Hev. Henry C. Fish, D. D., and pastor of the 
First Baptist church, J^ewark, N. J.: "It will be 
seen that something more than a little water divides 
US from those whom we yet love as Christians. It 
is a difference upon the radical question as to who 
shall be received to baptism and acknowledged as 
members of Christ's churcli. We may sa}^ believers ; 
tliey, believers and their unbelieving children. We 
cannot wallv in cliurch fellowship with those wlio 
thus persist in modelling the Christian church after 
the Hebrew commonwealth, instead of the pattern 
given in the New Testament. We must, for the 
truth's sake, continue to protest against so grave an 
eri'or." {Madison Avenue Lectures, p. 50.) 

Of all the questions of tlieology there are none so 
apparently befogged with error as this of infant 
church membersliip, so that I wish to present, if 
possible, a clear statement of what to me appears to 
be the teachings of God's word upon this important 
subject. First, then, in criticizing the latter quota- 
tion, I would say that the Jewish commonwealth 
was not the Christian churcli, but a type of the 
Christian church. This is taught by Baptist theo- 
logians, as well as those of other denominations. 
Prof. William C. Wilkinson, of the Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary, of Rochester, ]^. T., says: "An- 
cient Israel was a type of the Christian church. A 
type, let it be remarked, for ancient Israel was not 



186 THE PHARISEE 

the Cliristiaii clnircli. It was the Christian churcli's 
type." He then goes on to show how tlic Jewisli 
nation was the descendants of Abraham, sealed in 
infancy by circumcision, and that the Christian 
church is composed of Abraham's spii'itnal seed, and 
are to be baptized, not in natural infancy, but in 
their spiritual infaticy, or immediately after conver- 
sion. A very ingenious argument, 1 admit, but one 
which I cannot accept as the truth, from the very 
fact that the analogy throughout docs not hold good, 
but is broken and defective. A sound green orange 
is a perfect type of a ripe oi'ange, but a partially 
rotten and worm-eaten srreen orano'e cannot be a 
type of a good ripe one. If there is a defect in the 
type, there must be a corresponding defect in the 
antitype. A nation, part of which falls from God's 
favor, cannot be a type of a sanctified church which 
does not fall from His favor. The antitype, then, 
must cover something more than a church of purely 
sanctified believer.-. Paul says "they were not all 
Israel that were of Israel." The nation was virtu- 
ally rotten at the core. The whole history of the 
Old Testament was a history of falling from grace, 
and in the end we find almost tlie entire nation 
plunging itself in irretrievable ruin by rejecting their 
Messiah, crucifying D..vid's anointed Son, and per- 
sistently rebelling against the authority of the Ro- 
man empire. Still, out of this coi'ruption, Paul 
declares that there is a remnant which shall be 
saved. The grace, then, from which they fell was 
not the grace of the sanctified, nor a type of it, but 
the'blessings of the visible kingdom — in the antitype 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 187 

the blessings of God's word taught in infancy. Is- 
rael, then, was not a type of the regenerated church 
which cannot fall from grace, but a clear, well de- 
fined, and unmistakable type of tliose who are born 
within the limits of tlie visible kingdom, our bap- 
tized children, as well as an inner sanctuary of 
sanctitied believers — a chosen priesthood. 

The Christian Church, then, consists of, 1st, a 
spiritual priesthood of regenerated believers — teach- 
ers — dispensing, by life and example, as well as in 
other ways, tlie word to otliers ; 2nd, tlieir baptized 
cliildren, scholais, oi" disciples, learning the word for 
their own benefit. 

Now, I believe in having a purely spiritual church 
of none but regenerated believers, as much so as any 
Baptist brother can do. None should be adniitted 
but those who give satisfactoi-y evidence of regener- 
ation. Kot a mere resolve, or even a determination 
to fallow Christ, as the prodigal when he came to 
himself, but when clothed with a change of garments, 
and seated at his father's table partaking of the spirit- 
ual feast. Neither of tliose two brothers were of 
Abraham's spiritual seed, until tliey had changed 
their garments and partaken of the symbol of tlieir 
freedom from the bondage of the law. But, then, to 
this church belongs a court, a subordinate depart- 
ment, who are not yet partakers of the Lord's Sup- 
per, but whose symbol of entrance is baptism ; water 
— the word — washing away the dust of the field, in- 
structing and preparing for entrance into a higher 
sphere. To these spiritual infants, who have entered 
the court, the Lord's Supper is to be administered. 



188 THE PHARISEE 

Baptism belongs to a condition much more carnal 
tlian this spiritual birth, although not a national 
symbol like circumcision, yet confirming the child's 
position in the New Testament Israel, but not into 
the spiritual priestliood, or invisible kingdom of 
Christ. 

It will be observed, that in the case of the prodi- 
gal and his brother both were born in tlie same house, 
both sat at the same table, and received their nourish- 
ment from the same hand ; both had been clothed 
by the same provident care, and both had imbibed 
the same lessons of instruction ; but one wandered 
away, repented, and came back again, while the other 
remained faithful to his fatlier, never leaving or for- 
saking him. The Greek word for repentance — 
rj."w^(>s(o — means a change of mind. This change of 
mind occurred in the prodigal wlien he turned away 
with loathing and abhorrence from his filthy condi- 
tion, longing for a pure and holy life. His repent- 
ance led to his conversion. To convert is to turn 
hack again^ and is from the Latin "con" again^ and 
" vertere " to turn. This repenting and converting in- 
fluence tlie elder brother had never experienced — 
could not experience in order to turn back again to 
his father's house. 

The general impression is, that children of believers 
(as well as all others) are born in the world, and be- 
long to Satan until they are converted. It is not 
understood that they are members of the church, but 
of Satan's kingdom, until converted, when they be- 
come meinbers of Christ's Church. Language to 
that effect is to be found continually in our religious 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 189 

periodicals. I copy one from an article in the Herald 
and Presbyter^ now before me, entitled " Peril of 
Delay." It says: " The late Dr. Spencer, of Brook- 
lyn, N^. Y., author of ^Pastor's Sketches,' made a 
personal inquiry how old each member of his church 
was when converted. He had two hundred and 
fifty-three members. The following was the result : 
one hundred and thirty-eiglit were converted under 
twenty years, and eighty-five between twenty and 
thirty, etc. * * * * According to the investi- 
gation of Dr. Spencer's church — and a like propor- 
tion has been found in other evangelical churclies — 
more than half his members were converted -before 
twenty years of age, so that, by this reckoning, for 
children who are not regenerated before that time 
in life, half the probabilities are gone tliat they ever 
will be. * * * * Certainly this is something 
tliat should enlist the deepest parental solicitude for 
unconverted children, and of Sabbath-school teachers 
for their scholars." The children here referred to 
were members of the Sabbath-school, consequently 
baptized children, who were precisely in the condi- 
tion of the elder brother. They had never gone 
astray, consequently could not come back again by 
repentance, in tlie sense of coming back again from 
the world. It is impossible to tell when the germ 
of eternal life is implanted in tlie lieart of the child ; 
it may be in early infancy, as in the cases of Samuel, 
Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and of Timothy. It is 
not at all times accompanied with outward visible 
manifestations, and may be even so gentle that the 
possessor himself may not be aware of its presence^ 



190 THE PHARISEE 

Botli the elect and non-elect child may occupy pre- 
cisely the relation to the Father that this elder bro- 
ther did, until some unexpected event, like that of a 
filthy tender of swine entering tlie family circle, and 
overturning every sense of propriety and dccencj- ac- 
cording to tlieir ideas, and they are called upon to 
re-examine and see whetlier they had imbibed the 
riglit meaning from their fatlier''s teaching or not. 

The following from the Christian Observer^ of 
Louisville, for January 14th, 1880, is to the point, 
and states the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church 
on this subject: "Our system (the Presbyterian) re- 
ceivesits private members, not as masters and judges 
in the Lord's house, but only as scholars and learners. 
It does not receive them as rei>;enerate, but onlv as 
making a credible profession of faith. It tells them 
who wish to join that it expects them to go on im- 
proving year after year, and that it does not esteem 
any mortals perfect. In these respects it is unpop- 
ular." 

Remember that the two sons in the parable, on 
the one hand, were separated from the heathen world 
by an immense gulf, and on the othei* by a wall 
which divided them from the priestly office; and 
just in the same way the children of ti'uly regener- 
ated believers to-day are separated from tlie unbe- 
lieving and rebellious outside world l)y a gulf wider 
than the Atlantic; yet on the other hand, there is a 
dividing wall which separates them from a place in 
the sanctilied Church. Many, when they arrive at 
the point where the prodigal was when he "came to 
himself," and resolved to go to his fatlier, feel very 



And the publican. I9l 

liappj, but their happiness is based on tlieir own 
good resohitions, and they mistake these for regener- 
ation. But the work of the Spirit may be only ex- 
terior, and they may fall by the way. ITot until 
they have siiffei-ed the deatli of the old man — tlie 
carnal nature — symbolized by the deatli of tlie fatted 
calf, and liave partaken of the new, in the feast 
witliin the Father's sheltering roof, are they assured 
that the Spirit's work is not external, but internal. 

And now let us ask an important and solemn ques- 
tion, Why did Clirist establish a Church on earth, if 
it were not for the beneiit of His children ? Did He 
command His apostles to go and baptize none but a 
spiritual priesthood — none but teachers in the sanc- 
tuary ? Or did He command them to baptize disci- 
ples? Baptist authors occasionally, without know- 
ing tlie truth they proclaim, tell us that Christ com- 
manded His apostles to "disciple the nations, bap- 
tizing them." That is right; and when they have dis- 
cipled, God will choose from among those disciples a 
spiritual priesthood of regenerated believers. But 
children of believers are born into a state of disci- 
pleship. Tlie infant, from tlie Hrst dawn of reason, 
is a disciple taught by the movements of its mother's 
linger. Water baptism is a symbol of this continued 
teaching which confirms his birtliright. It is born a 
disciple, and a disciple it remains, until, knowing the 
Christ, he receives or rejects Him. The true bap- 
tism of the soul — the gospel teaching, is what con- 
firms his discipleship. 

The establishment of a church for the exclusive 
benefit of truly regenerated believers is too selfish to 



192 THE PHARISEE 

be from Christ. Such a clmrch wonld be virtually 
a cliurch of Pharisees, claiming for themselves all 
the benefits derived from 'the spiritual sonship of 
Abraliam, to the exclusion of all publicans, however 
attentively they may sit at tlie feet of Jesus. A 
church of exclusive regenerated believers God does 
not want. God does not want us to sit at His table 
in the spiritual sanctuary, and eat of the sacrifice 
offerings and shew bread, and enjoy ourselves. Our 
field of labor is the court, where we are to train the 
cadet, and tit him for a soldier; and when thus 
trained we will botli go out to the conquest of the 
woi'ld. What God does want is that we should lahor 
in his vineyard, and that vineyard is the antitype of 
ancient Israel — those who are born in tlie visible 
kingdom, including all the young and tender plants 
which it is our duty to cultivate and nourish. Here 
again we observe another important point. It is 
only the child of Abraham that can become a pro- 
digal. The cliild of a pagan could not become a 
prodigal. He is born in Satan's kingdom, away 
from all teachings. His food has been swine's food 
from the beginning, and he knov7S no other, conse- 
quently he is satisfied with it. Should he die in in- 
fancy he is saved, not through any covenant made 
with Abraham, either carnal or spiritual, but through 
the covenant of redemption made between the Fa- 
ther and Son in the councils of eternity. 

Before leaving, the case of the prodigal, it may be 
well to note for future meditation, an analogy which 
we find running through the four stages of the pro- 
digal's experience, and the opening of the first four 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 193 

seals in Rev'elation: 1st, The prodigal's chafing 
under a father's restraint, and the arrow of the bow 
of the conqnerer bringing conviction to the sinner's 
heart; 2nd, That conviction becomes a "sharp 
sword," bringing the prodigal into suffering and 
misery; 3rd, A famine in the land, in which the 
prodigal is humbled, and receives the advice of John 
tlie Baptist, to render justice in all his dealings with 
his fellow man, (Luke iii. 11-14); 4th, E-egeneration 
— life out of death (a green horse — erroneously trans- 
lated pale — being a symbol of regeneration) — sancti- 
fication. The prodigal returns and is reconciled. 



DID THE ELDER BROTHER REPENT? 

In presenting tliese views, the question has often 
been asked me, Did not the elder son have to repent 
just as much as the younger son did? I have inva- 
riably answered in the negative; but the question is 
repeated again and again, and an answer imperatively 
demanded. lean only answer as heretofore: No! 
I say, No ! ! Emphatically, NO ! ! ! But I ask no 
one to believe me. Believe God's Word. Paul 
says, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." If, 
then, the statement does not conform with some- 
thing seen within the limits of our little horizon, we 
may take it for granted that the defect is in our 
vision, and not in God's Word. The urgency with 
which this question is asked and repeated convinces 
me of the difficulty of rooting up old errors when 
9 



1*94 



THE PHARISEE 



once tliey have thorouglily gotten possession of the 
mind. Tiiej are liivo noxious weeds, which you may 
dig up and root out, and next summer they are as 
prolific as ever. 

God's word is decisive on this point, and affords 
no room for cavil. It says that "the ninety and 
nine just persons need no repentance." God again, 
through the fatlier of the prodigal, confirms the de- 
claration when he says to the elder brother, " Son, 
thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." 
To say that these ninety and nine just persons 
were angels or redeemed spirits, is only adding er- 
ror to error; for our Lord explicitly declares that 
they were the flock in the wilderness; that is, just 
where the lost slieep was before it went astray. 
You may ask, "Did not this son sin daily, and does 
not every violation of the law condemn to death — 
death eternal, unless repented of?" Yes, I grant it. 
Put it in the strongest language that you possi- 
bly' can. Bring to bear upon it all the light you can 
possibly obtain from the Scriptures, and I accept it 
as Bible doctrine, and houe ever to be faithful to it 
as I have in the past. But this has absolutely no- 
thing to do with the question before us. The error 
undoubtedly grows out of a misunderstanding of the 
design and extent of the parables. We accustom 
ourselves to interpret these parables according to our 
condition, our customs, our practice in our houses, 
and at our dinner tables, rather than those of the 
Jews in our Savior's time. And now that so many 
books of travel in Palestine, treating of its customs 
and the habits of the people, both in niodern and 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 195 

ancient times, are being constantly published and 
sold so clieap, we ought certainly to be more enlight- 
ened on these subjects. 

Let us, then, see how a Jew, familiar with the cus- 
toms of his people and their significance, would look 
upon this parable in Christ's time. The elder brother 
remained at home. This implies that he kept him- 
self ceremonially pure, and away from contact wdth 
the impure world, or in other words, every day's ac- 
count was settled, paid, and squared-up before the 
sun went down. He would by no means be allowed 
to' partake of the evening meal until he had laid 
aside his sandals, and washed his feet at the door. 
The father would not permit his son to pass through 
the door until he had washed his feet. It was a re- 
ligious ceremony that could not be dispensed with, 
and implied that all his daily transgressions were for- 
given — washed away. 

The fathers explicit declaration, "Son, thou art 
ever with me," proves beyond the shadow of a doubt 
that all daily sins were accounted for, and squared 
up by the father's kiss of reconciliation every night, 
and this had been done from his earliest infancy up 
to the present time. Laboring in the field as he did, 
it was impossible for him not to return without soiled 
garments; but these were very different in the eyes 
of a Jew from the filthy garments of the tender of 
swine, and were cleansed by the Jewish purifications, 
and these daily lustrations of the Jews symbolized a 
daily cleansing from sin. 

Such being the case, his daily debts were paid, 
and were not to be taken into the account. They 



196 



THE PHARISEE 



were paid from the daily cash-book out of the daily 
fund, and were not transferred to the ledger to ac- 
cnmulate day after day against him, and then be 
paid by a draft on the bank. To demand payment 
from the bank for a debt already cancelled and 
squared up in the cash-book, a clear balance having 
been already struck, would be considered wrong, un- 
just, and dishonest, consequently our Lord says, 
" the ninety and nine have no need of repentance." 
Those of whom the elder brother was a type are 
called "just," not because they have not sinned, but 
because their sins are blotted out — forgiven. The 
Scriptures are very clear upon this subject : " Blessed 
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, 
and in whose spirit there is no guile." " I, even I, am 
He that blotteth out thy transgressions." "Blessed 
is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose 
sin is covered." " I have blotted out as a thick 
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins," 
(referring to the morning cloud dispelled by the ris- 
ing sun in mountainous countries.) All this was 
spoken by ancient Israel, consequent]}^ the child 
under the antitype of Israel occupies precisely the 
same place in regard to daily sins that the professed 
believer in a risen and glorified Saviour does, and is 
under the same necessity to seek and obtain daily 
forgiveness. In the fourth of Homans, Paul applies 
this blessedness, first to Abraham under the old cov- 
enant, even before he came under the covenant, and 
then he applies it to Christians, and clinches the nail 
by saying, "There is therefore no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus ;" and the apostle 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 197 

John's declaration is still more emphatic : " Whoever 
abideth in Him sinneth not." 

Let ns ao;ain sjlance at the Jewish cnstoni of wash- 
ins: the feet before entering the door of a dwelling. 
On one occasion a company sat by the side of a door 
soon to be opened, wlien a son of the father came 
with a bowl and towel, and commenced washing 
tJieir feet. One of the company drew back, saying, 
" Thou shalt never wash my feet." The son answered, 
"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 
The servant of the law said, "Not my feet ooly, but 
my hands and my head." The son responded, "He 
that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, 
bnt is clean every whit; and ye are clean^ but not all." 
One of the company was an apostate. I^ow these 
words were spoken to those who w^ere still in the 
condition of the elder brother, — servants under the 
law, for they were still under the old dispensation. 

I said, " by the side of a door about to be opened." 
This was the door of the new covenant. Christ is 
that door. He is the door of the old dispensa- 
tion, as well as of the new ; of the court as well as of 
tlie sanctuary; and, looking forward to the future, He 
is the door of the holy of holies also, for He Him- 
self says, " I am the resurrection and the life." 

In the tenth chapter of John, Christ speaks of 
Himself as the door of the sheep-fold, and He says 
this to His own disciples, all exclusively Jews, and 
all under the old dispensation ; and then, in one of 
the very few references He makes to the Gentiles, 
He says, "And other sheep I have, which are not of 
this fold; tliese also I must bring, and they shall 



198 THE PHARISEE 

hear My voice, and there shall be one flock and one 
shepherd." In tlie Greek there are two words — 
auATi^ a fold^ and -oitir^-j. a flock — both of which are 
used here. The former is applied to the Jewisliyb^^i, 
under the old dispensation, hedged in, walled about, 
by the law, and the other to the Christian flock^ or 
Church, out in the open tield of active service. The 
Cliristian^^oc?^ is in the world, yet Christ is equally 
the door of both, althougli one was in a state of 
apostleship, sent out to declare the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Now, again, observe the language used in describ- 
ing these '' ninety and mwQ just persons." They are 
called^' //5^f persons. They are not called holy persons, 
for the words translated holy and saints, used elsewhere 
in the New Testament, would imply that they belonged 
to the new covenant. Tliey are called just persons, 
and the Greek word has the same origin as that used 
by our Lord at His baptism by John: '* It becometh 
us to fulfil all righteousness;^^ or, as some versions 
have it, " fultil ^Wjusticey Now what righteousness 
could Christ refer to but the righteousness of the Mo- 
saic law — ceremonial righteousness. The wordi just is 
hardly appropriate here, for justice itself refers more 
directly to mans relations with his fellowman, while 
the idea here is man's relation to his God. Notice 
again, in the same connection, an error in our ver- 
sion which misleads. The father, in speaking to the 
servant of the law, is represented as saying, ^'Son, 
thou art ever wdth me." This the father could not 
do, as it would imply that he liad passed over into 
the new dispensation, and been made a partaker of 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 199 

the liberty — sonship — of the gospel ; consequently, 
when we refer to the Greek we iind the word, rezvov, 
child, and not olt, son. 

Here, then, we clearly distinguish the difference 
between the two brothers. The elder had no need 
of repentance or purification. His daily lustrations, 
performed w^ith a willing mind in the father's pre- 
sence, cleansed him from daily sins. On the other 
hand, the filth had been accumulating day after day 
on the prodigal during the long years of his absence, 
without a single lustration. During this time he had 
lived in open rebellion against his father's authority, 
and this could alone be cancelled by repentance — 
coming back again to his father's house, making con- 
fession, and seeking forgiveness — and not by ablu- 
tions in a strange land. The elder son, on the other 
hand, needed no repentance for rebelling against a 
kind father's authority ; no repentance for turning 
back upon his just laws ; no repentance for abandon- 
ing his father's home, together with all the endear- 
ments of childhood, squandering his patrimony, liv- 
ing with harlots, entering the service of a polluted 
Gentile, feeding swine, the abomination of the Jew^ ; 
walking with defiled and tattered garments in the 
very lowest depths of degradation and pollution. 

Up to the night when the prodigal returned, the 
elder brother had never failed to pass through his 
father's door, and that door is Christ. He helonged 
to the family of the justified^ hut not to the sanctified. 
Whether on this occasion he yielded to the father's 
entreaties and passed through that door, or whether 
he now became a rebel — a prodigal like his brother 



200 THE PHARISEE 

— the parable does not tell us. It closes just at that 
point of history in the life of the Jewish nation when 
these words were pronounced, and we must look 
elsewhere for a continuation of the history. 

The great mistake appears to be in supposing that 
tlie ninety and nine who need no re})entance must 
necessarily he sanctified persons, and not just persons, 
as is stated. But wlien we clearly define the limits 
of the two dispensations, the whole difficulty disap- 
pears. Up to tliis time but half of the Christian be- 
liever's duty had been required of the elder brother 
— that of a servant — liis obedience to his father; and 
the faithful among the Jews had no dou])t, from a 
human standpoint of vision, complied witii this; but 
now another and a different element is introduced. 
Heretofore the Jew considered that the law had been 
given exclusively to himself, and that he was under 
no obligations to any one who was not like himself 
a partaker of the blessings and duties of the syna- 
gogue. He liad complied with tlie requirements of 
the first table of the law, and with tlie second as far 
as the narrow limits of his own houseliold required. 
But now he is brought under tlie second table in a 
wider and broader sense of obligation than before, 
as God leads liim to see tlie necessity of observing 
its requirements in regard to the ontside world, 
hence he is led to inquire, "Who is my neighbor?" 
and in order to justify himself, settles down to the 
conclusion that his neighbor is only tliose who live 
within his own enclosure. But now God brings to 
his door a poor, dirty, ragged stranger, from a far 
country, and what will he do with him? Will he 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 201 

take him in and clothe and feed him, or will he give 
him only the dogs' portion — 'the crumbs which fall 
from his table? Here, then, we have the primary 
object of the parable. That it was intended to illus- 
trate the return of a penitent sinner is only secondary. 
The primary object was to teacli the Pharisee a 
lesson in res-ard to the oblii^ations he was under to 
his fellowman. This he had overlooked, and this is 
the basis of the new dispensation. The Fharisee had 
doubtless felt the obligations he was under to keep 
the law, but he liad established no missionarj^ society, 
and sent out no missionaries, even to the publicans, 
much less to the heathen world. But a new era is 
abont to be introduced, in which not love to God 
alone, but brotherly love, is to be the distinguishing 
characteristic. The Pharisee now -stands without 
the door, the representative of two distinct classes: 
1, Those who from childhood have not only observed 
the outward requirements of the law, but within 
whose breasts the Holy Spirit has implanted an in- 
ward desire for holiness; and 2, The cold, ostenta- 
tious hypocrite, whose only desire is outward holi- 
ness and self-gratiiication. The former may err — 
they do, and are now in error in regard to their 
treatment of the wandering brother — but will be 
convinced by a father's arguments, yield to his 
entreaties, and go in and partake of the feast, and 
feeling its efficiency, will exclaim : " We know that 
we have passed from death nnto life, because we 
love the brethren." The other class wdll turn away, 
treating the wanderer with indifference, or hurling 
after him anathemas and persecution. These may 



202 THE PHARISEE 

possess every otlier grace, but failing in this one 
heaven-born gift, all their righteousness, long prayers, 
devotion, good deeds and faithful works are but 
"sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." (1 Cor. 
xiii. 1.) 

It is admitted there may be a few who, like 
Timotliy and John the Baptist, may remain faithful 
to the teachings of their parents from early infancy, 
but it is said tliat " they are so vei-y few that it is 
dangerous to teach such a doctrine." 1 answer, very 
well. Supposing there are but few, say only five, on 
the whole face of tlie eartli, these are enough to 
sustain the doctrine. But I must deny that there 
are a few. On tlie contrary, there are not a few, but 
many. Hundreds of declarations of Scripture prove 
that there are naany. All the faitliful Jews who died 
before Clirist's resur)'ection were of this class; and 
if there is a perfect analogy between the type and 
antitype, tliere must be just as many faithful children 
in proportion to the whole of the children of the 
church to-day as there were faithful Jews in propor- 
tion to the whole family of Israel before Christ came. 
The declaration that there were "seven thousand in 
Israel," even at its lowest ebb, ought to suffice us. 
If sucli was the case in Ahab's time, liow" many are 
there to day in God's Israel wlio are faithful, yet not 
professed members of Christ's cluirch ? But the doc- 
trine is Bible doctrine, and it cannot be dangerous 
to teach it. Tlie doctrine is Presbyterian doctrine, 
and the ministers of the Presbyterian church are 
under solemn obligations to sustain it. As a min- 
ister of God's word in connection with the Presby- 



AND TltE PUBLICAN. 203 

teriaD cliuicli, mj conscience compels me to teach 
it. 

On the other hand, it is dangerous not to teach 
this doctrine. That it is a dangerous doctrine, and 
should not be taught, like every other error, is a 
device of Satan to ruin souls. Thousands of faithful 
children are tauglit tliat, instead of making a pro- 
fession of faith in Christ, they must first pass 
through some wonderful change, like that wliich 
befell Paul on his way to Damascus; that a super- 
natural revelation must be given to them, and they 
are impelled to wait year after year for this super- 
natural change, until they become cold and wander 
away like the prodigal, and are lost. B}^ all means 
let us have the truth, the whole trutli, and nothing 
but the truth. 

Again, the number of those in the outward visible 
kingdom of Christ — that remnant which will be 
finally saved — of those who have not come up to the 
standard of sanctification according to the New Tes- 
tament, by which they are made servants of the law, 
are not a few. It comprises pretty much all who 
will be saved where the Greek and Koman Catholic 
churches prevail; but there may be many even among 
Protestant denominations. A profession of faith in 
Christ does not change the heart. The germ of 
eternal life may be itnplanted in the heart, and yet 
never be brought to such maturity in this life as to 
distinguish its possessor from his fellow disciple in 
the temple court, yet God will not allow it to perish, 
but bring it to maturity in the world to come; while 
again, others may, whether possessing the inward 



204- THE PHARISEE 

germ or not, have such outward manifestations of 
the Spirit as to suppose they belong to the regene- 
rated church, and making a profession of faith in 
Christ, appear for a time as bright and shining 
liofhts, and then sink into a state of coldness and in- 
difference, and hang on year after year as dead 
weights to the church, and finally perish in the 
world, or die within the church as professed be- 
lievers, yet never having risen above the standard 
of an Old Testament Pharisee. 

Such passages as, "The}' went out from us because 
they were not of us," are quoted to refute the views 
here presented, but they are all foreign to the sub- 
ject. Instead of refuting these views, they only 
prove them. They went from us, while we were 
yet in tlie court; disciples, but they were not of us 
who are sanctitied. There is no evidence that the 
Holy Spirit had commenced a work within them, 
although He may have bestowed upon them outward 
blessings, by which they were faithful disciples for 
the time being. Judas may have been of this class, 
and so also "Antichrist," whom the apostle names 
as the one who "went out from us." Antichrist 
was a false teacher, who may have been a faithful 
servant under the old dispensation, lii^e the prodigal 
son while he renuuned in his father's house; but he 
never belonged to tlie church of regenerated be- 
lievers, consequently could not be of them. He 
went out from the kingdom of the world, of which 
he may have been a faithful member, but was never 
a member of the kingdom of the Spirit, and as such 
he is a fallen messenger (angel). To quote this pas- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 205 

sage, then, to prove that all children belong to the 
kingdom of Satan until thej are converted and join 
the sanctified church, is a manifest perversion of 
Scripture. Paul's language on this point is decisive, 
and admits of no room for controversy: "The heir, 
as long as he is a child, differeth in nothing from a 
servant." An almost universal opinion is, that the 
cliildren of believers are, like the outside world, born 
and trained in Satan's kingdom, until, by some mira- 
culous interposition, they are suddenly converted and 
become children of Grod. I read a statement lately, 
in a religious periodical, that "the Bible knows of 
no intermediate state between justification and sanc- 
tification." Such views are perfectly erroneous. 
The implanting of a spiritual germ under the old 
economy may be a sudden transit from death to 
life, but that sanctification is an instantaneous work 
is nowhere tanght in God's word. In the case of 
the prodigal, a long, tedious journey had to be ac- 
complished befoj'e he could return from that "far 
country" to his own beloved home; many a weary 
mile had to be measured by his steps before he could 
see his father's roof. It was a long journey, through 
a burning desert, which took Israel forty years to 
pass over; worn and footsore, a remnant arrived 
safe, while many fell by the way. Dr. Timothy 
D wight's language on this subject is to the point. 
He says that it is " unscriptural, deceitful, danger- 
ous." Until a tree bears fruit it produces nothing 
but leaves, and yet it may have all the elements of 
a good tree in a state of development. It was en- 
grafted by the gardener when quite small, and yet 



206 THE PHARISEE 

through long years tliere is nothing but growth and 
useless leaves. When it arrives at maturity it enters 
upon a new era, and fruit is produced. This era 
was to the Jewish nation the coming of Christ. Up 
to that time the nation liad not sent out a single 
missionary or made a single convert. After this 
period the grafted portion produced fruit, and the 
remainder was cut off, lost, or scattered. The same 
may be said of tlie child of the believer. Tliat new 
era is sanctification — wlien he begins to produce 
fruit. He may have been grafted by the Divine 
gardener in early infancy, before liis recollection ; 
or it may have come to him as it did to the prodigal, 
in his wanderings far away from tlie fold. From 
the grafting to the fruit-bearing a long spa(!e may 
intervene. A child of Satan to-day, and a child of 
God to-morrow, is no doctrine of Christianity. They 
must serve under tlie law before they can be sancti- 
fied by Christ. 



THE UNRIGHTEOUS STEWARD. 

Luke xvi. 1-9, 

The parable of the unjust steward has always 
been considered the most difiicult of all the para- 
bles, and one which has led to more diffei'ent inter- 
pretations than any other. The different meanings 
assigned to this parable would fill a volume. That 
God should commend a servant for an act of injus- 
tice puzzles the commentators, and has led them to 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 207 

exhaust their ingenuity in devising some means to 
reconcile tlie discrepancy. Alford says: "This par- 
able is about a child of this present world, and when 
applied to a child of liglit all tliat pertains to the 
child of tlie world is to be dropped out of sight, and 
only that retained svhich refers to the children of 
light." This is not satisfactory. Tliere must be a 
perfect analogy between the typo and antitype, or 
we may rest assured that we liave not yet obtained 
the true interpretation. All difficulty, however, van- 
ishes if we take the parable in its proper connection 
in our Lord's discourse with the parables w^hich pre- 
cede and follow it. 

The direct application of the parable was to the 
faithful Jews at our Saviour's time, in regard to 
their relations with the Koman empire, and be^^ond, 
to Christians in their use of the good things belong- 
ing to this world. 

^'And He said also to His disciples.'''' He now 
ceases for a moment to direct His discourse to the 
whole audience, and turns to His disciples, who may 
have occupied a position somewhat separate from 
the main company, and probably in a lower tone, 
yet within distinct hearing of the whole audience, 
relates the following paral)le. This was done, no 
doubt, to show them that it was something which 
directly concerned their own w^elfare, but from tlie 
interest of wliich the Pliarisees were not altogether 
excluded. 

. Christ had a double object in view in presenting 
this parable to His disciples. One was, to teach 
them to so use the goods of this world that they 



208 THE PHARISEE 

might have treasure in heaven; and the other was a 
sort of warning as to what they should do when Jer- 
usalem would be destroyed bj the Romans. I am 
led ■ to this conclusion by the extraordinary efforts 
which Josephus and his friends made to persuade 
the Jews to conciliate the Romans, and thus save 
themselves from utter destruction — advice which they 
rejected, but whicli had already been accepted by 
the Christians as a precaution from our Lord, none 
of whom were found fighting against the Romans. 

The rich man was God. The steward was the 
child of the synagogue. The riches were no doubt 
worldly riches. The silver and gold belong to Clod, 
although He wisely, for tlie time being, allows the 
Roman empire to put her stamp on His coin. I 
think, however, spiritual riches were included, as the 
main object of the parable appears to be to teach 
the Jew of that time (as well as the Christian 
Church in future ages) man's duty to man. 

''And the same was accused unto him, that he had 
wasted his goodsT Some suppose that tliis was a 
slanderous accusation, but there is no proof that it 
was. If it had been, tlie steward would certainly 
have taken some measures to have proved his inno- 
cence. But he makfis no attempt whatever to de- 
fend himself. The course that he pursues indicates 
that there could be no doubt about his guilt. He 
was precisely in the same position that the ceremo- 
nially rigliteous Jew was in at the time of our Sa- 
viour. He had received all the blessings that had 
come to him by being God's chosen people — the law 
and the prophets, as w-ell as temporal blessings — ■ 



* AND THE PUBLICAN. 209 

and all these he had squandered npon himself. He 
had eaten them up, and worn them ont, and now 
they are gone. He here again shows his true char- 
acter, an idolater bowing at the feet of the great 
idol, Self. He had done nothing for the benefit of 
his fellow-brother of the seed of Abraham, the 
publican, much less the Samaritan and Gentile. He 
had expended all upon himself, entirely oblivious of 
the existence of a brother with whom he was under 
obligations to share every penny. 

And now, rising into the higher sphere, that of 
the antitj^pe, we find that we in like manner, when 
brought face to face with God's law, must acknow- 
ledge ourselves guilty. We cannot answer for one 
of a thousand sins. We have squandered our pre- 
cious time ; we have trespassed upon God's good- 
ness ; we have spent upon ourselves, in the enjoy- 
ment of earthly pleasures, that which we sliould 
have shared with others; and now w^e find that 
there is no soundness in us. "All we like sheep 
have gone astray." 

'"'Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou 
inayest he no longer steward.'^ The devout Israelite 
of that time was fully warned. The kingdom was 
about to be taken away from them and given to 
others. The old discipline was about to close. Old 
Testament prophecy had foretold the time, and it 
was about to close. The end of the age was near at 
hand, and the stewards of Israel were about to be 
called upon to render up an account of their steward- 
ship. We, in the antitype, are in the same condi- 
tion. Life is fast passing away, and soon we will be 



210 THE PHARISEE 

called to give an account of our stewardship, and 
pass out into the eternal futui'e. 

" What shall I doV says the unjust steward; "/ 
cannot dig, and I am ashamed to hegP And what 
shall we do? Witliout God's assistance and protec- 
tion we can do nothing'. We cannot keep ourselves 
from the grave. We have no power to preserve life 
in these decaying bodies. AVhat sliall we do? We 
are about to be turned out of our stewardship. The 
liour of death is fast approaching, when tliis mortal 
life shall cease. What shall we do? We cannot 
raise ourselves from the grave. Wo cannot dig. 
What shall we do ? 

And he says, " I am ashamed to heg^ There is the 
great difficulty. Whom shall we beg from ? Who 
alone can help us but God? But it is His goods we 
have wasted, and shall we go to Him whom we have 
wronged and beg of Him? Here is just wliere tlie 
shame becomes a prominent factor. And it is worse 
to go to our fellowmen and l)eg of them, for they 
are all in the same condition that we are in, and un- 
able to help themselves. What shall we do? for the 
cold night of death cometh, when we can neither 
work nor beg. AYhat shall we do? 

" So he called every one of his lord''s debtors P The 
unjust steward has resolved wliat to do. Heretofore 
he has lived for self, and for self alone, and conse- 
quently has no friends among the lord's debtors. He 
is alone in the world. He now resolves that, during 
the short time that remains of his stewardship, 
he will gain the good will of his lord's debtors, by 
bestowing upon them those goods which he had here- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 211 

tofore wasted upon himself. His resolution was no 
sooner matured than put into practice. We are not 
told liow many there were; there may have been 
fifty, or there may have been five hundred. Only 
two examples are given us, to show how he treated 
them all; just as three examples are given in tlie 
parable of the pounds, and ten servants, to show 
how all were treated, varying in this case (as was 
done in that t>p the several abilities of tlie servants) 
according to the indebtedness of each, as well as to 
the amount of benefit he supposed that he should 
reap from each one in return for his kindness. 

Now, there is no indication whatever tliat this 
transaction was done secretly. There was no effort 
made to conceal it. It was pu])lic — open to the gaze of 
the whole world. Tlie steward's character is already 
gone, and he knew that what he did would be bind- 
ing upon his lord ; but no matter, he does not care 
what he thinks of him now. 

In applying the parable to the condition of the 
Jew, we now find that the figure changes, and in- 
stead of the Pharisee, who heretofore had lived alone 
for himself, altogether unconscious of any obligations 
he was under to the outside world, he now becomes 
the publican, conciliating the Romans by gathering 
their taxes from his own people, and paying tliem 
over to them. He now seeks to make friends with 
the Koman government, tliat when his own nation- 
ality shall have been blotted out, he may have a 
treasure and a habitation that will endure; and when 
applied to us, we are brought face to face with our 
obligations to our fellowmen, in not only dealing 



212 THE PHARISEE 

honestly with them, in sharing with them all divine 
blessings, both temporal and spiritual, but using our 
goods in bringing them into ways that lead to purity 
and holiness. 

'''And the lord commended the unjust steward^ he- 
cause he had done wisely.^' Here is the great diffi- 
culty. "Wby should his lord commend him for 
doing tliat which is manifestly unjust, and was un- 
doubtedly an act of dishonesty toward himself? Be- 
fore answering this question, I would suggest a sub- 
stitution of tlie word prudently iov the word 'Svisely.'' 
He acted prudently ; and now I would say that his 
lord did not commend liis honesty, but his prudence. 
Tlie latter clause of the verse confirms this: "The 
child I'cn of tliis world are wiser (or more prudent) 
than the children of liglit." 

Now, again, we must take into consideration tlie 
position held by a steward in an oriental kingdom. 
The goods were consigned to him, just as our Lord 
consigns earthly treasures to us, to make what use of 
them we tliink proper, so that we may advance 
His interests. Out of tliis we are allowed our own 
living, — all our daily expenses; the balance belongs 
to Him. This case is similar to the parable of the 
ten talents. The ten talents gained by one, and two 
by another, were promptly handed over by the ser- 
vants who had gained these sums. This stew^ard, in- 
stead of laying up for the master, had eate7i up for 
himself. He appears to have laid up nothing for 
himself. If he had laid up for himself, it would 
have been all rio^lit, as be himself belonsred to his 
lord, and consequently all he possessed belonged to 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 213 

him also. And now 1 think the dishonesty of the 
transaction with his fellowmen will disappear, if we 
take into consideration the position which the typi- 
cal steward held at this time in the kingdom of Israel. 
All Israel were servants of the law. The steward 
(or prophet) was also a servant, but a dispenser of 
his lord's goods among his fellow servants. John 
the Baptist was the greatest of the stewards of the 
old dispensation; but unlike this steward, John lived 
an abstemious life, while this one squandered his 
lord's goods in personal enjoyment. His true legiti- 
mate occupation, then, was to share the goods his 
lord had consigned to him with his fellow servants, 
as each one had need, consequently his generosity 
as a publican was to be commended, while his selfish- 
ness as a Pharisee was to be as strongly condemned. 
He is called, then, an ''unjust steward," not, as is 
usually supposed, by what he did after his conver- 
sion, but for what he had done before that period. 
Before, he had lived unjustly in eating up his lord's 
goods; but now, during the short time that remains, 
he lives justly, in dividing with his fellow servants 
that which had been entrusted to him as a steward 
for that very purpose, thereby gaining friends to his 
lord's kingdom as well as to himself. 

^^ Make to yourselves friends of the inmnmon of 
unrighteousness P Here is another difficulty. What 
is the meaning of the word maramon f — (found also 
in Matt. vi. 24.) Some have supposed that it was a 
Syrian name for the god Plutus, the god of riches; 
but of this there is no proof. We can easily under- 
stand bv the conversation that it refers to the riches 



214: THE PHARISEE 

of this world ; but why should Christ say to His dis- 
ciples, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon 
of unrigliteousness?" 

The word mamvion does not appear to apply alone 
to Koman gold, but to that whicli it represents — 
worldly happiness and prosperity — and appears to 
be of ancient orio^in, carrvino; our minds back to 
ancient Babylon, the type of worldly enjoyments and 
pleasures, and wiiose symbol was a woman wdth a 
golden wine cup in her hand — "the motlier of 
harlots." The word "mammon'* is feminine, and ap- 
pears to have been derived from a word common to 
all lano^uao:es, mama. The termination on enlaro-es 
the conception into great, or shameless. As all 
worldly pomp, splendor, riches and pleasures symbol- 
ized by Babylon are retained in the more modern 
symbol, the Roman empire, the terra "mammon — 
mother of unrigliteousness — is a very appropriate 
name for the golden coin which represents tliat 
empire, and the love of which, tlien as now, is the 
motive power tliat rules the world. 

Now, wlien Clirist tells His disciples to make 
friends of tlic mammon of unrighteousness, He does 
not mean that they sliould place their affections upon 
riches here, and eat them up, as the Pharisee had 
done, but ratlier the reverse, as He told the rich 
young man, "Go and sell that thou hast, and give 
to the poor, and thou shalt liave treasure in heaven." 
These treasures in heaven come to us through the 
friends who are to receive us "into everhisting habi- 
tations." 

Again, remember tliat at this time the disciples 



AND THE PITBLICAN. 215 

wore still under the old dispensation. Deeds of 
mercj and charity would be valuable friends when 
they should be turned out of their stewardship, and 
these, although done with the Lord's money, would 
bring a return of a hundred per cent, interest, and 
although visibly done to men, would be considered 
as done to Himself; as Christ Himself says, "Then 
shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 
Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 
For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I 
was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; 1 was a stranger, 
and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I 
was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye 
came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer 
Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, 
and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? 
When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? 
or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee 
sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? And the 
King shall answer and say unto them, YeriW I say 
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least 
of these, ye have done it unto Me.'' 

"When ye fail" means no more than the hour of 
death. When this earthly life fails. 

" That they may receive you" is understood by 
many to refer, not to the friends benefited by a 
proper use of the riches entrusted to our care, but to 
the." treasure in heaven," purchased by a proper use 
of unrighteous mammon. 

They say that "the Mey is predicated of the heavenly 
treasure, and not of the friends^ I hardly think 



216 THE PHARISEE 

that the they should be thus limited. The unjust 
steward was not alone received by the treasure which 
he had bestowed upon his friends, but by the friends 
themselves, for the benefits received in times past. 
If by a proper use of our stewardship — our riches — 
we convert enemies into friends of Christ, these 
friends, with Him, will receive us into everlasting 
liabitations. 

'-^Ile that is faith fid in that vjhich is least is faith- 
ful also in that which is imichr We are com- 
manded here to be faithful in the proper use of 
earthly treasures. If we have not been faithful witli 
them, who will entrust to us the "true riches?" I 
understand by the true riches here, not the ''treasure 
in heaven," purchased by a proper use of earthly 
riches, good works, etc., and already spoken of, but 
something still higher, and beyond and without 
which we cannot enjoy the other. The true riches 
are Christ Himself, and having Him, our good works 
will follow us. 

"iVb servant can serve two 'masters ^ " Ye cannot 
serve God and mamvion.'''' We learn from this, the 
use that we are to make of this world's goods. We 
are to use them as a servant, but not to serve them 
as a lord or master. The same may be said of riches 
that we say of fire: "J. good servant^ hut a hard 
mastery We clearly see, then, in this parable a 
warning from Christ to His disciples to so far con- 
ciliate the Roman power as to gain them as friends, 
but not to bow to them as lords; and secondly, a 
warning to us to so use the blessings of this life that 
instead of allowina: them to become our masters and 



AJSD THE PUBLICAN. 217 

onr God, we are to procure for ourselves friends with 
thein, by using them for the conversion and instruc- 
tion of sinners, that when we pass from earth we 
shall possess the blessed companionship of these 
friends eternally in the heavens. 

Then, again, we are to make friends in this world 
who will accompany us on tlie way to heaven ; and 
in order to do this -we mast labor for the good of the 
world; spend our time, talents, money, and energy 
for the good of the world. This was foreshadowed 
in Jeremiah's prophecy to the captives in Babylon 
(the great type of the world), in which the Lord 
commands them to "Build houses and dwell in 
them; and plant gardens and eat of the fruit of 
them; take wives, etc." (Jer. xxix.) This is a 
parallel case to this warning and command given 
by Christ to His followers. Strange to say, the 
Jews of that time, actuated by the same Pharisaical 
spirit as ruled them in Christ's time, as well as now", 
commanded Jeremiah to be cast into prison. 



THE KICH MAN AND LAZAEUS. 

Luke xvi. 14-31. 

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus has an 

intimate connection with that of the unjust steward, 

and is only separated from it by a slight reference to 

the law, apparently of another nature, or in other 

words treating of another subject entirely foreign to 

the discourse, but which upon examination will be 
10 



218 THE PHARISEE 

found to be bat an explanation of the same subject, 
and connecting both parables in one continuous dis- 
course. 

"7%6 Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these 
things, and they derided Himr It has been denied 
that the character of the rich man in tliis parable 
could be applied to the Pharisees, as thej did not 
squander their wealth in eating and drinking, as the 
Saducees did, but rather lioarded it up. Tliey fasted 
often, made long prayers, and were verj^ abstemious; 
still they were covetous, and covetousness means self- 
enjoyment, even should it be but that of the miser 
in counting over and over again his piles of money, 
amid squalid filth and poverty. The following 
verse explains this: "And He said unto them, Ye 
are they which justify yourselves before men ; but 
God knoweth your hearts; for that which is highly 
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of 
God." It was but in outward appearance that they 
were abstemious — only to please men ; and so we are 
told elsewhere that they disfigured their faces. But 
does not the covetousness expressed here refer to 
their condition as a nation, desiring to get all they 
could out of the Gentiles for national aggrandizement, 
and not merely for individual enjoyment? Was not 
this the reason why they so hated to pay tribute to 
Caesar, and so despised the tax gatherers or pub- 
licans? They did not believe that their nation was 
to be destroyed, and they turned out of the steward- 
ship. On the contrary, they were in daily expecta- 
tion of a miraculous interposition from heaven — the 
Messiah, who would destroy the Roman yoke, es- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 219 

tablish them in a kingdom, and bring the wealth of 
the Gentiles, and lay it at their feet. Therefore, 
thej derided onr Lord when He intimated that they 
should be turned out of the stewardship. 

'''And He said unto themP Onr Lord now turns 
His whole attention to the Pharisees. 

" The law and the prophets were until JohnP The 
law and the prophets were a foreshadowing of the 
kingdom. They are not the kingdom of God in its 
plenitude. The kingdom of Israel was no more 
the spiritual kingdom of God than a painting re- 
presenting cavalry and infantry is the battle of 
Waterloo. 

" It is easier for heaven and earth to pass ^ than for 
one tittle of the law to failP The great end and ob- 
ject of the law must be fulfilled. If the kingdom of 
God is not established on earth, then the law most 
certainly must be a failure, and our blessed Lord de- 
clares that it would be easier for the heavens and 
earth to pass away than for such a thing to come to 
pass. 

^' Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth 
another^ comndtteth adultery ; and lohosoever inar- 
rieth her that is put aioay from her husband^ covi- 
mitteth adultery ^ All our commentators, as far as 
I know, have understood this verse in a literal sense, 
and to have no connection with the parables which 
precede it. Many suppose that it lias reference to 
Herod Antipas, whoso adultery witli Ins brother 
Pliiiip's wife the Pharisees had tacitly sanctioned, 
thus allowing an open breach of that law which 
Christ came to fulfil ; and they supposed the rich man 



220 THE PHARISEE 

in the following parable to be Herod himself. 1 do 
not believe that there is even the most remote refer- 
ence to anything of the kind. Herod did not marry 
a divorced wife, but seduced a married woman from 
her husband. That our Lord, in the very midst of 
one of the sublimest discourses ever uttered, just at 
the point where He is about to enter upon the peror- 
ation, should thus irrelevantl}^ break away from His 
subject, and refer to one solitary point in the law, 
without any connection whatever with His discourse, 
and then immediately return to His subject with no 
word of explanation, is simply preposterous. Israel 
was the cliosen spouse of the Lord ; slie is now di- 
vorced. The Lord has rejected lier, and will no 
longer care for her. The Roman empire may take 
her up for a time, as Greece, Persia, and Babylon 
had done before, but the marriage is not legal ; she 
has come under the curse of the law, and must be 
punislied, and the punishment which the law de- 
mands is death. Adultery under the Mosaic law 
was punished with death, and not one tittle of that 
law shall ever fail. Jerusalem, the adulterous city, 
must be punished — destroyed — even if the Pharisees 
do deride the idea. 

The daugliter of a priest, wlio committed adultery, 
was to be burned with lire. This was tlie curse pro- 
nounced against Babylon tlie great. God had repu- 
diated Israel, and she was now about to be destroyed, 
and He would marry Himself to another ; that is, 
to the coming spiritual kingdom, as John the Bap- 
tist had already foretold. But the Pliarisees rejected 
that kingdom, preferring to remain in repudiated Is- 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 221 

rael, althougli God bad warned them by the prophet 
Isaiah, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that 
ye be not partakers in her sins." (Isa. lii. 11.) 

"iVoi^ there was a certain rich manr Here the 
Revised is an improvement on the King James ver- 
sion. Without the "now," the following paragraph 
would be disconnected, with it the discourse is con- 
tinuous. 

" Clothed in purple and fine linen^ Purple 
was the favorite color of kings. The king's robe 
was purple. Idols were also clothed in purple, to 
designate the royal authority of tlie gods they were 
supposed to represent. Fine linen composed the 
garment of the high priest, and was indicative of 
righteousness; so we learn that this man, who lived 
sumptuously every day, was not only a king, but he 
was a very pious man also. 

'^ Fared sumptuously every dayP Not only on 
feast and gala days, but every day. lie is accused 
of no crime. Some call him the rich glutton, but 
the Scriptures accuse him of no such crime. He had 
broken no law. The only thing that can be said 
against him is that a poor man lay at his door whose 
wants were unrelieved. 

The name Lazarus means help of God, " The 
rich man was not named,*' Augustine says, " because 
his name had been blotted from the book of life, 
while the name of Lazarus still remained there." 

" Desiring to he fed with the crumibs which fell 
from the rich man's tcibler The language used here 
indicates that he did not even get these, at least not 
in such abundance as to satisfy his hunger. 



222 



THE PHAKISEE 



As the rich man's sumptuous living is described 
in a few words, so Lazarus' poverty and wretchedness 
are delineated by a few masterly strokes — covered 
with sores, and a companion of dogs. 

Nothing is said about the moral condition of Laz- 
arus. If we descend to this, we lose sight of the 
great lesson to be taught by the parable. Lazarus 
was not saved because he was a poor man, nor the 
rich man cast into liell because lie was rich. This 
is the view taken of this parable when the devil 
teaches the Bible-class, as ho too often does. Each 
soul is saved or lost according to liis inherent merits, 
and not according to the amount of his worldly pos- 
sessions, or the want of them. Many an infamous 
scoundrel has entered a monastery and assumed pov- 
erty, only to find himself in the end a companion of 
the rich man in liell. Abraham was ricli, and so 
was David and Solomon, and even Job in his last 
da3'S. 

" lie was carried hy angels^ He who was before 
the companion of dogs has now become the com- 
panion of angels. He now reposes upon Abraham's 
bosom at the marriage supper of tlie Lamb, 

^' The rich man also died and was huriedy We 
are not told that Lazarus was buried even. His 
body may have been cast out with his companions, 
the dogs. Tliey were the only friends he had in life, 
and may have sliared a grave with him. That we 
are told that tlie rich man "was buried," Trencli, 
in his admirable work on the parables, calls "a sub- 
lime irony." No doubt a splendid funeral was made 
over him. . He was laid in a magnificent tomb, or 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 223 

mansoleam, his body having first been deposited in 
a costly sarcophagus, carved out of marble or some 
valuable stone. 

''In hell he lifted up his eyes^ What a change! 
The rich man, whose companions were the rich, is 
now the companion of devils. His purple robe has 
now become a garment of tormenting flame (what- 
ever that may mean). His fine linen is now polluted 
with the filth of damned spirits. His sumptuous 
fare is now exchanged for ceaseless torment. Oh ! 
how gladly would he have exchanged his present po- 
sition for the hard, stony steps on which Lazarus had 
lain, his garment for Lazarus' sores, and his com- 
panions for Lazarus' friendly dogs. 

The sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah was doubtless in- 
tended as a prophecy of the true spiritual character 
of the selfish Pharisee. He is there first represented 
as a "rebellious people," polluted by contact with 
the dead, defiled with unclean food, at heart just 
the reverse of what his symbolical purity intimated. 
No doubt our Savior had this passage in His mind 
when He said : " Woe unto you, scribes and Phar- 
isees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto wliited sepul- 
chres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardl}', but 
are within full of dead men's bones and of all un- 
cleanness." 

They say to the publican : " Stand by thyself; come 
not near to me, for I am holier than thou." But 
God does not destroy them now, for even corrupt 
and vile as they are, a select seed — a remnant — the 
elect, shall come out of them ; but when this sep- 
aration is fully consummated, then a change takes 



224 THE PHARISEE 

place. "Therefore," He says, "will I number you 
to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the 
slaughter; because when I called ye did not an- 
swer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil 
before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I de- 
lighted not. Therefore thus saitli the Lord God, 
Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hun- 
gry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall 
be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye 
shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for 
joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, 
and shall howl for vexation of spirit." 

But right here we are met with a difficulty. The 
Greek word translated hell here is '''' Hades ^' the 
place of departed spirits. We are not told that the 
rich man's hody went there, nor can any such infer- 
ence be derived from Scripture, where this word 
Hades occurs. His body, we are told, was buried. 

Trench, Alford, and other commentators insist 
that Hades is not hell. Alford says : ''Hades is the 
abode of all disembodied spirits till the resurrection ; 
not the place of torment, much less hell^ as under- 
stood commonlv. Lazarus was also in Hades, but 
separated from Dives; one on the blissful, the other 
on the baleful side." Again, he says of the torment: 
"Not eternal condemnation^ for the judgment has not 
yet taken place; men can only be judged in the hody, 
for the deeds done in the body; but the certainty 
and anticipation of it." This is far from satisfac- 
tory. It does not fulfil the requirements of the 
language used to describe it: "Send Lazarus, that 
he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 225 

my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." Does 
this look like an anticipation of torment, the reality 
of which, according to Alford, can only come after 
a judgment that can be verified only after the resur- 
rection of tlie mortal body united with the soul, and 
of the result of w^hich we have no reason to suppose 
he knows anything as yet? According to Alford's 
view, will this disembodied spirit return to earth, 
be united with the body, and then in judgment be 
condemned to a punisliment a part of which it has 
already received ? Is this Hades a sort of purga- 
tory — a Jialf-way house where souls are tormented 
between earth and hell ? 

I believe that the wicked will be punished, and 
until I can learn from the Scriptures that it is not 

4. 

so, 1 must believe, for many valid reasons (at least 
they appear to me to be valid) that that punishment 
will be eternal ; but that the literal body, composed 
as it is of dissolvable matter, will be raised, to suffer 
eternally in a hell of literal fire, is not taught in this 
passage, or in any other in the Bible that I am ac- 
quainted with. It w^as the immortal soul, in this 
case, that was tormented ; and that there will be any 
change in this torment, such as Alford intimates, 
from soul to bodv, after two or more thousand 
years, is purely assumption. 

The subject is certainly attended with difficulties. 
Gadet, in speaking of Hades, says: ^'Paradise as 
well as Gehenna forms part of it." But this is con- 
trary to Rev. XX. 14, where Hades is spoken of as 
being cast into the lake of fire after judgment. The 
only satisfactory solution I can give to this question 



226 THE PHAKISEE 

is by supposing that the two characters, the rich 
man and Lazarus, represent two extreme cases; that 
the one of Lazarus {Jielp of God) had passed out 
from under the servitude of the law, and by his close 
communion with God in his poverty, and having be- 
lieved on Christ, liad become a son of God through 
the gospel, and that consequently, at the hour of the 
death of his body, he passed into the presence {pa- 
rousia) of Christ, according to John v. 24: and John 
viii. 51 ; and tliat the rich man, on the other hand, 
having rejected all offers of mercy, living in con- 
tinual rebellion against God, at the hour of his death, 
being alread}' condemned (John iii. 13), passes not 
only into Hades, but beyond, and into Gehenna. 
The Pharisee was a professed teacher in Israel; con- 
sequently this man was a false propliet, and entered 
upon tlie false prophet's punishment at the hour of 
death (Rev. xix. 20), and not after a general judg- 
ment, as will be the case with others (Rev. xx. 
10-14). 

I cannot agree with the tlieory that Hades is the 
abode of all departed spirits. If it were true, then 
death and Hades would be synonymous terms, both 
meaning the same thing, which we will at once see is 
not the case if we examine those passages of Scripture 
where the two words occur in the same connection. 
They are spoken of as companions, but not as one 
and the same object. The word Hades means the 
land of darkness. Abraham's bosom cannot be in 
the land of darkness. Christ, addressing tlie Father 
at the hour of His death, says by His own mouth, 
^' Into Thy hands I commend My spirit;" and by 



AND THE PUBLICAN". ^27" 

the mouth of His prophet, ''Thoa wilt not leave Mj 
soul in Hades ;^^ and to the dying thief (now sanc- 
tified believer) he says, " To-day thou shalt be with 
Me in Paradise." To the Jews Abraham's bosom 
and Paradise were one, but not in the land of dark- 
ness, although beyond the range of physical death. 

Although in torment, the rich man is recognized 
by Abraham as a son according to the flesh: "Son, 
remember tliat thou in thy lifetime receivetli good 
tilings. What a fearful meaning tliere is in this 
word "sci^z" in this connection! Tens of tliousands 
of Koman Catholics believe that they will be saved 
because they belong to what they believe to be the 
only true church, and that Protestants will be lost 
because they do not belong to that church. It was 
just the same with the Jews in our Savior's time. 
They believed tliat they would be saved because 
they had Abraham for their father. John the Bap- 
tist had already told them, ''Think not to say wdtliin 
yourselves, "We have Abraham to our father; for I 
say unto you that GTod is able of these stones to 
raise up children unto Abraham." They could not 
believe that a son of Abraham could be lost. Thev 
did not know that Abraham himself was a sinner, 
and could alone be saved by the merits of the sacri- 
iice of Calvary. The rich man was a son of Abra- 
liam by the flesh, which means no more than tliat he 
was born within the limits of the visible Church, and 
according to the flesh; that he was in servitude to 
the flesh, as Abraham's children were to Pharaoh 
while in Egypt. Abraham must be renounced, and 
the flesh crucified, hated. Does not this give us a 



228 THE PHARISEE 

hint of the meaning of Christ's words, " He that 
liateth not father or motlier cannot be Mj disciple" ? 
Abraham and the carnal nature must give way to 
the Christie. 

It has been well said that this is the only instance 
in the Bible of prayer being offered to a dead saint; 
and I remember once having in my possession a Ko- 
man Catliolic book, in wliich this case was quoted as 
an example of prayer being offered to the saints; 
but the example has the misfortune of being a wit- 
ness on the wrong side. The praj^er was not an- 
swered, and never will be; no, nor any other prayer 
offered to a departed saint. 

The rich man's prayer was not granted. As Laz- 
arus was denied the very crumbs which fell from his 
table, so now he is denied a single drop of water to 
cool his parched tongue from the table of his own 
father, Abraham. The Pharisees derided Christ 
when He told them to make friends of tlie mam- 
mon of unrighteousness, and now He gives tliem the 
terrible fate of one who did not do so ; not even 
making a friend of the poor man laid at his own 
door, he has no friends to receive him "into ever- 
lasting habitations." " Blessed are the merciful, for 
they shall obtain mercy." 

The parable of the unjust steward is so intimately 
connected with this parable that we cannot separate 
them without losing the meaning. In thy lifetime 
I employed thee as a steward over my goods, intend- 
ing to reward thee at the end of thy stewardship. 
Thou hast taken thine own reward out of the goods, 
and now nothing remains for thee. Lazarus made 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 229 

good use of what he had, however little that may 
have been, even perliaps not more than to gain the 
friendship of the dogs that licked his sores, by di- 
viding liis crumbs with them. His reward remains 
to him still intact. The rich man has sown only to 
the flesl), and of the flesh can reap nothing but cor- 
ruption, while Lazarus has sown to the Spirit, and of 
the Spirit reaps life everlasting. 

''' Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed T 
The gulf is not only great, \iw.\, fixed. We can well un- 
derstand how those who are in torment would desire 
to come out; but we cannot understand why any one 
should desire to pass to them. Can it be heaven, if 
we knew that others, created in our likeness, are suf- 
fering in torment? If we now have such an intense 
desire to relieve the sufferings of our fellowmen, 
will not that desire be increased in a world of sinless 
purit}^ ? Or is the meaning that the gulf is so wide 
that it can not only not he bridged over, so as to 
pass from one side to tlie other, but so great that no 
pulsations of sorrow or of happiness can ever i*each 
across the fathomless abyss that separates the world 
of joy from the world of torment? 

'^ Send him to my father'' s liOuseT Finding that 
no favors would be granted to him, he asks in behalf 
of his five brethren. And the very request is an in- 
sult to Deity ; for it is as much as to say, that if God 
had given him suflicient warning while on earth, he 
would not now be found in this place of torment. 
If God had only made His demands clear enough, 
he would have known. Now he wishes his brethren 
to have sufiicieut warning. Abraham's answer is 



230 THE PHARISEE 

short and to the point : ^' They have Moses and the 
prophets." Tliey have sufficient warning. If they 
will only make good use of the warning God has 
given them, they need no moi'e. Who these five 
hrethren were, it is not necessary to inquire. They 
were of the family of Israel, who have Moses and the 
prophets — prohably scribes, priests, Levites, etc. — 
intimate companions of the Pharisee. 

'''If one went to them from the dead they will re- 
pent.''^ Witness the caviling, contrary spirit of the 
Pharisee, even amid the torments of the lost. '''Nay ^ 
father AhrahaviP On eartli they would not believe, 
continually saying to Christ, "shew us a sign;" and 
as God's word has told us our works follow us into 
the other world, and they who are righteous here 
will be righteous there, and tliose who are wicked 
here will be wicked there, we see that the Pliarisee 
still demands a sign, — if one rose from the dead 
they will repent. 

'^ If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither 
will they he persuaded though one rose from the 
deadP Father Abraliam says they will not even be 
persuaded, let alone repent. "To the law and to 
the testimony. If they speak not according to tliis 
word it is because there is no light in them." The 
rich man says that they will repent at tlie return of 
a spirit from Hades. Abraham says they will not 
be persuaded thougli one rose from the dead. The}'' 
w^ould not believe God's messengers, althougli by 
His power the historical Lazarus rcse from the grave, 
nor would they believe Abraliam or Moses or the 
prophets, when all with one consent told them that 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 231 

one would rise from the dead wlio had the keys of 
death and hell; who told them liow and when He 
should be raised, and what for. In fact, they were 
told all about it. And when the time came this One 
did rise from tlie dead, and sent them His disciples, 
to warn them of a judgment and future retribution? 
and they believed them not. No sign shall be given 
them but the sign of the proplict Jonas. One who 
liad been three days in the grave arose again, warn- 
ing them of the future torment of the wicked, but 
all in vain. 

Now the application. The rich man is the proud, 
legally righteous Pharisee, who had fared sump- 
tuously every day, clothed in purple and fine linen. 
To him were given the oracles of God, containing 
all wisdom and all knovvledge; the throne of David; 
the Levitical priesthood; Solomon's temple, with all 
its symbolical and typical teachings. Everything 
that could make a people wise and happy had been 
bestowed upon him. God says: ''What could have 
been done more to My vineyard that I have not done 
in it?" They were the people that He had made to 
ride upon the high places of the earth, and to whom 
pertained tlie "adoption and the glory and the pro- 
mises." They boasted of father Abraliam, and 
said tliey were Moses' disciples — God's own chosen 
people — the elect of heaven, while they considered 
all other nations as. but unclean dogs, and turning 
their backs upon the Samaritans and publicans, who 
held a middle ground between the two. 

The true God had dwelt among them in a cloud 
and pillar of fire, and had given His oracles from 



232 THE PHARISEE 

the Shekinah of the tabernacle and temple. He had 
sent them His prophets, and performed in their siglit 
miracles and wonders not even dreamed of by the 
Gentiles. He liad given them a psalmody and 
spiritual songs nnequalled in human language, and 
had bestowed upon them gold and riches and great 
honor, and now in these latter daj's had sent tliem 
His own Son, clothed in human flesh, to teach them 
the way of life. 

And what use did they make of all these things? 

At their very gate lay not only the Gentile world, 
but the Samaritan and publican, covered from head 
to foot " with wounds and bruises and putrifying 
sores," "aliens from tlie commonwealth of Israel," 
companions of dogs, sorcerers, suffering, bleeding, 
groaning, dying. 

And, oil! what did she do, who was crowned with 
heaven's highest blessings? — she who enjoyed tlie 
favor of heaven's high King — she wlio should have 
been "a light to lighten the Gentiles" — what did 
she do to relieve the wants of her poor, suffering, 
dying sister? To every request of the perishing 
Gentile she but responded, "It is not meet to take 
the children's bread and give it to the dogs." She 
even withheld the crumbs that fell from her table to 
tlie publican, shutting liim out of the house of in- 
struction by closing the door of tlic synagogue 
against him. Oh! if there is not a future retribu- 
tion for such an inhuman monstei*, there certainly 
ought to be. 

But the worst is not yet told. Beyond, and still 
worse, is the story of Jerusalem's degradation. Here 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 233 

comes one of whom prophecy had said " He shall be 
great among the Gentiles," one who should ''show 
judgment unto the Gentiles," and of wliom it is said 
"the Gentiles should trust in His name;" or in other 
words. He should come as a King or representative 
of the Gentiles. He beholds Jerusalem, and weeps 
over her, and wliat does Jerusalem do. in return? 
She calls Him a Samaritan, having a devil; she 
scourges Him ; she spits upon Him ; she casts Him 
out of her gate, mocked with a purple robe, and 
wearing a crown of thorns; she covers Him with 
w^ounds and bruises and putrifying sores, and leaves 
Him writhing on a cross, bleeding, groaning, dying 
at her very door; and in the agony of death she 
gives Him gall and vinegar, and then sends a band 
of soldiers to break and mangle His dying body, in 
in order that their holy Sabbath day — Pharisaical 
ritualism — should not be contaminated. Not Jeru- 
salem, but a band of filthy dogs (as Jerusalem 
would call them) from Samaria and Galilee sympa- 
thize with Him in His sufferings. 

And now, the Son of man dies, and goes to the 
bosom of the eternal Father, a companion of angels. 
One generation passes, and proud, rich, haughty 
Jerusalem is surrounded by Roman soldiers. Oh ! 
what a burial ! If there was ever a hell on earth, it 
was there, if there is any truth given in the record 
as given by her own historian, Josephus. And yet 
God had warned them through Moses, saying, " I 
will destroy your high places, and cut down your 
images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses 
of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you." " I 



234 THE pharisp:e 

will smite thee with a consumption and with a fever, 
and with inflammation, and with an extreme burning, 
and with the sword, and with blasting, and they sliall 
pursue theef until thou perish." "And the heaven 
that is over thee shall be brass, and the earth under 
tliee shall be iron." "And thy carcase shall be 
meat to all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts 
of the earth, and no man shall drive them away." 
"The Lord shall smite thee from the sole of the foot 
to the crown of tlie head." "And thou shall be- 
come an astonishment, a proverb, and a bj^word 
among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." 
(Deut. xxviii.) 

Although there is a perfect analogy between the 
former condition of Jerusalem and lier final ruin, as 
well as of tlie former condition of the Gentile world 
without the gospel, and her present condition with 
it, with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, yet 
we must not forget that this is not tlie object of the 
parable. The parable finds its perfect fulfihner.t in 
persons who were present wlien Christ pronounced 
this discourse. The rich man and Lazarus were re- 
presentative cliaracters, not of the Jew and Gentile 
world, but of the Pharisee and publican ; persons 
then living within the visible kingdom of Israel, and 
the death spoken of is not the fate of a nation or na- 
tions, but of individuals, a literal death of the body, 
and the subsequent condition of the soul in a future 
state. The destruction of Jerusalem is not the anti- 
type, but a corresponding type, on a more enlarged 
scale; hence the analogy. 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 235 

APPLICATIOK 

Dr. Stuart Robinson saj^s of the tlieory of preach- 
ing, tliat " its purpose is the showing of the people 
how to read tlie Word of God, and leading them to 
feel that this day is tlie Scripture fulfilled in their 
ears; and these are the words of Jesus, who not only 
spake by holy men of old, but who is now speaking 
with living utterances to the men of this generation ;" 
and that in his own preaching he "strove to make 
the Scriptures a living message from God to men ;" 
translating them into the current forms of thonght 
and speech. A far too general impression is, that 
the Bible is a record of events that transpired thou- 
sands of years ago, and that its teachings concern the 
worshippers of false gods in Nineveh or Babylon, 
and do not definitely concern us who live in Chris- 
tian lands to-day. This is a sad and fatal error. 
Tlie Bible is God's message to us personally and in- 
dividually ; and as such we must look for examples of 
its characters, those persons who act a prominent 
part among its prophets, priests and kings, as well 
as those who form the prominent features in its par- 
ables and miracles, among living men to day, if not 
even in our own hearts. If such is the case, we may 
be sure to find all tlie peculiar characteristics of the 
Pharisee and publican in living men around us, 
even in our own community, however limited it may 
be. We have already answered the question as to 
who the Pharisee and publican were before the pre- 
paration of the sacred feast which was to usher in 
the new dispensation, and of which it is to be hoped 



236 THE PHARISEE 

part, by tlie Father's solicitations, had been induced 
to partake. Onr duty now is, to inquire who are the 
living men of to-day who bear the same cliaracter- 
istics that the rich man and Lazarus did in our Sa- 
viour's time ? As has been before remarked, the 
rich man and Lazarus are by no means the represen- 
tatives of a rich man and a beggar, upon the sole 
ground of inequality j^of real estate or tangible pro- 
perty. The rich man is the representative of an un- 
sanctified soul, rich in this world's goods (either ma- 
terial, moral, and intellectual, or all combined), while 
Lazarus is the representative of a sanctified soul, 
rich in faith, but poor in this world's gifts. Either 
of these individuals may be members of the visible 
church, or they may not. 

We meet with the rich man every day. We not 
unfrequently find him declaiming in the pulpit. He 
makes earnest and urgent appeals to sinners to flee 
from the wrath to come, and threatens them with 
eternal perdition if they do not come forward and 
make a profession of Christ. Many say, " What a 
good man, what an^ earnest man, what a pious man, 
behold, what great good lie does ; how many souls 
he has brouglit into the Churcli." And many are 
seriously impressed for a time, and are induced to 
unite with the visible Church; but they soon find 
that he is a preacher and not a teacher; and instead 
of feeding them with the bread of life, he feeds 
them with chaff, and they perish of hunger. (Amos, 
viii. 11, 12.) Oh! how many come to Him for the 
bread of life and go away empty. They learn no- 
thing from the pulpit, and turn away to the infidel 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 237 

teacher, who feeds them on swine's food till they 
perish. And yet the Pharisee enjoys this position. 
He may imagine, and doubtless does, that he is doing 
the Lord's work, and he enjoys it and grows fat in 
his self-esteem, and in the adulation of his fellow- 
men. Oh! that the shepherds would feed the flock 
with the bread of life — God's living word, well-pre- 
pared and well-studied — and leave the conversion of 
souls where it belongs — in the hands of Christ. I 
would recommend to all sucli Pharisees to study well 
the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, and see what 
position they occupy in regard to the feeding of God's 
flock with the pure, unadulterated Word of Life, as it 
comes from the hands of its Maker, or only a small 
portion, which tliey have trodden down with tlieir 
own feet, soiled and distorted through ignorance of 
its true meaning. 

We find the Pharisaical rich man in the high 
churchman, who, in his proud sanctimonious ritual, 
imagines himself to be the only true church, and all 
"dissenters," who differ from him, to be outside of 
the fold, and consequently unworthy of his notice. 

Again, we find the Pharisee in the very pious 
officer or member of the church, who, by his very 
sanctimoniousness and long prayers, repels a wander- 
ing brother, or by his coldness and indifference drives 
him away from the bread of life. Instead of going 
out and gathering up the filthy Lazarus in his sancti- 
fied arras, carrying him in and placing him upon his 
own soft couch, and calling in a physician to wash 
and bind up his wounds, he allows him to perish on 
the hard, stony steps of his mansion; and if he goes 



238 THE PHARISEE 

near him at all, it is but to lift liis garment in order 
that he may expose his sores to the eyes of a gaping 
crowd and denounce his filth, and tattle about his 
sins. Oh ! how many of us would rather talk for 
hours about the short-comings of our neighbors than 
teach him a lesson Irom the way of life. This 
Fliarisee lives altogether for his own glory, within 
his own piety, and does not sliare his spiritual bless- 
ings with his fellowmen. 

We find the Pharisee behind tiie counter, selling 
"shodd}^" so nicely printed and starched that the un- 
practised eye cannot distinguish it from the best of 
first-class goods. He claims that it is "one of the 
tricks of the trade," which business allows, or rather 
enforces upon him, regardless of the golden rule, 
"Do to others as you would have them do to you." 
In the provision store we find him weighing out 
glucose — starch boiled in diluted sulphuric acid — and 
calling it sugar; and oleomargarine, labelled "gilt- 
edge Initter," vainly striving to imagine it all right 
as long as his customers pay for what they get and 
do not know the difi'erence. And then, again, we 
find him in his counting-house settling up with his 
customers, making thirty three per cent, profit on 
inferior goods, taking their notes at from twelve to 
twenty per cent, interest, secured by a mortgage on 
their property, which he forecloses if his customers 
should be unable to pay when these notes fall due. 

We find him again in that large, splendid establish- 
ment where patent medicines are turned out by the 
million, living sumptuously every day on the vast 
fortune which he has accumulated, and of which 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 239 

Lazarus has been robbed under the pretence of curing 
his sores. 

On Sunday he rings a chime of bells to call his 
family to cliurch, augmenting by their ding-dong tlie 
headaches in the hospital opposite; and enjoying a 
sound, healthy sleep himself at night, is perfectly 
oblivious to the fact that the dog chained in his 
back yard for his own protection has by his continual 
barking deprived his sick neighbor of that necessary 
rest which would have restored him to health. 

He is a politician, seeking for an office which he 
has not merited, and if successful, he robs his country 
to supply his own table and hll his own pocket; and 
if disappointed, seeks revenge by hurling the assas- 
sin's bullet at tlie lieart of a President, who, unlike 
himself, has received office at tlie hands of a generous 
people for worthy merit, and refuses to give it to an 
unworthy miscreant. 

He glories in the manufacture and sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors, by which he builds to himself a large 
palace, clothes himself with purple and line linen, 
and lives sumptuously at tlie expense — blood and 
tears — of widows and orphans, filling the veins of 
thousands with his vile poison, corroding their bodies 
and ruining their souls, covering, not only liis steps, 
but filling the gutter even, with the poor, sick and 
dying Lazarus, whom he refuses to aid even with tlie 
crumbs from his table. 

A Pharisee may manifest himself in a son or 
daughter who lives upon a father's generosity with- 
out doing anything to repay it; in fact, a wife may 
be, and alas, far too often is, a Pharisee to her hus- 



240 THE PHA.KISEE 

band, living in genteel idleness while he, poor man, 
is burdened down with cares, loaded with debts he 
cannot pay, and struggling with adversity to main- 
tain liis family. Every consumer who does not pro- 
duce an equivalent for that which he consumes is a 
Pharisee — living at the expense of others. Then, 
again, every man who plants no orchard, does nothing 
to build roads or establish schools, or in any other 
way benefit his country, or tend to the interests of 
coming generations, is a Pharisee, living for himself 
alone. The first Pharisee was Cain, and his race 
will not cease to exist while selfishness remains in 
the world. 

That fine, noble, gentlemanly church member 
who constantly fills his seat in the pew, and as con- 
stantly performs his duty in the Sabbath-school as a 
teacher of the young, may manifest his Phariseeism 
by his bad example in leading those who depend 
upon him for instruction astray from the strict, 
narrow road of Christian duty and practice. His 
occasional glass of wine, attendance upon the theatre 
and other questionable places of amusement, his 
evening parties, with profane music and dancing, 
may produce a coldness or iukewarmness in impulsive 
young hearts, which, in the end, may conduct them 
down the broad way which leads to tlie shades of 
spiritual death. He heeds not the command, "Bear 
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of 
Christ." 

Thus, wherever we go, whichever way we turn, 
we find the Pharisaical rich man, living for self, al- 
together unmindful of the obligations he owes to his 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 24 L 

God as his steward, to use for the benefit of His 
fellowmen those blessino^s which God has loaned to 
him for a time, to be employed for this especial pur- 
pose. His God is Self, tliat great golden calf, 
which, from his standpoint of vision, is pure gold, 
but in tlie eyes of that God who made gold at the 
beginning, is nothing but the worthless image of a 
dumb beast. ISTor are we always to look for the 
characteristics of the Pharisaical rich man in those 
who are blessed wdtli this world's gifts. We may 
even find some traits of this character in Lazarus, 
however humble and humiliating his position may 
appear. The Lazarus which Christ has chosen as 
an example in tliis illustration, is a sanctified soul, or 
he would not have been borne to Abraliam's bosom 
at his death. Not every Lazarus is a sanctified soul. 
Many are far from being such. It has not unfre- 
quently been the case, that Lazarus has shown liim- 
self perfectly destitute of all gratitude, and has 
proved himself in every way w^orthy of the hard pos- 
ition he has attained. Not only this but we have 
known more than once a Lazarus to hurl a good 
loaf, which had been given liim by a rich man, to the 
dogs because it did not suit his taste, and to heap 
curses instead of blessings upon the head of his bene- 
factor — preferring the crumbs — a dog's position, to 
the bread of life. Every Lazarus is willing to re- 
lieve a rich man of his "filthy lucre," but not every 
Lazarus is willing to receive spiritual food and cloth- 
ing. He prefers the dog's saliva on his sores to the 
oil of grace, and the hard stony steps to a spiritual 
11 



24:2 The Pharisee 

feast of the soul. He also is a Pharisee wlio lives 
on the clogs' crumbs rather than submit to divine 
rule, and live to the glory of his God, by loving his 
neighbor as he does himself. 



CONCLUSION. 

Luke xvii. 1-10. 

We now come to the conclusion of this discourse, 
wliich appears to have been intended mainly for 
disciples, as He again turns His attention to them. 

Godet speaks of the "fragmentary character" of 
these passages, and says: "Luke had, up to this 
point, related a scries of exhortations given by Jesus, 
the occasion of wliich he was able to a certain extent 
to indicate; but he found some in his researches which 
were mentioned without any historical indication. 
It is tliis remnant scrap at the i)ottom of the port- 
folio, if I may so speak, wliich he delivers to us as it 
was, and without any introduction." I do not like 
this loose way of treating the discourses of our Lord. 
Were we dealing with proverbs, we should expect 
them to possess a " f ragfiientary character." When 
Jesus refers to a distinct object within the vision of 
His audience it is to illustrate His argument, and 
that gives it a historical connection. Dropping out 
of sight the illustrative character of these passages 
we lose sight of the connection, and with it the 
crowning: lAovv of the discourse vanishes. "It is 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 243 

impossible but that offences will come; but woe unto 
him through whom they come." We are here ad- 
monished to be verv careful not to offend these pub- 
licans, who are coming perhaps for the first time, like 
children — ''little ones" — "babes in Christ," to draw 
their first nourishment from the fountain of life, lest 
by our Phariseeism we drive them away, and they 
perish for ever. We are to overlook their weakness, 
pardon their offences to us, and encourage them to 
come and be received by, and eat with Christ. It 
would have been better for us to have been drowned 
in the depths of the sea than to cause one such soul 
to perish through our selfishness. 

"7/^ ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed^ ye 
might say unto this sycamine tree, he thou plucked 
up hy the root, and he planted in the sea; audit 
should ohey youP The ''sycamine tree," referred 
to here, is probably the male mulberry, a very lux- 
uriant tree, with large green leaves and spreading 
branches; a beautiful tree to look upon, but wdiich 
produces no fruit. The prophetical meaning of the 
word "6'6a" is the heathen world. The sycamine 
tree, then, would represent this great idol, 8elf — a 
spirit of selfishness, so much admired by its posses- 
sors, but which produces no fruit, and is the cause 
of all the scandals in the Church. Approach almost 
any one, not a church member, upon the subject of 
religion, and he will almost invariably, and at once, 
point to the selfish deformities in the hearts of clmrch 
members — horrid, filthy tumors to the eyes of the 
outside world; but worn by their possessors as pre- 



244: THE PHARISEE 

cioiis jewels, while the selfishness of the non-profes- 
sor who points out these defects may exceed all those 
of any ten professors in the communitj. Oh! that 
we had faith in the unseen spiritual riches of His 
kingdom to see tliese things, if only but for a short 
time, as God sees them; and that these temporal 
blessings are but loaned to us for a day, to be used 
by us for the good of His kingdom, we would at 
once, and for ever, turn tliis root of selfishness from 
our hearts, and hurl it from us — rooted out of the 
garden of tlie Lord, and plunged into the depth of 
the sea, or confined to the pagan world, where it pro- 
perly belongs. 

" Which of you having a servant f Here our 
proper relation to God is stated; we are all servants 
of God. 

" Gird thyself and serve me, till I have eaten and 
drunken^ and afterward thou shall eat and drinks 
Accordino' to the analoo^y found in the relation which 
a servant bears to his master, we are not to eat 
and drink ourselves imtil we see our brother provided 
for. Our duty is to liim first, and ourselves last, for 
in this way only can we serve God — as He comes to 
us in the form of perishing humanit3\ The table is 
God's, and all we are worthy of is the crumbs that 
fall from it; but instead of tliis, we claim the table 
as ours, and give flim the crumbs which fall from 
it. Oh ! 1 fear that if we kept an acconnt of debit 
on our side, and credit on the other, that at the 
end of the year we would find ourselves woefully 
deficient — so much for self, so little for God. But 



AND THE PUBLICAN. 245 

even this falls short of the truth: ''So likewise ye, 
wlien ye sliall liave done all those things which are 
commanded 3'on ;" that is, when you have fulfilled 
all the demands of the law as faithful servants, (a 
standard to which even the best of us never arrive,) 
even then say, " We are unprofitable servants ; we 
have done that which was our duty to do." 



PART THIRD. 



THE LORD'S MIRACLES. 



THE FIRST MIRACLE— WATER TURNED 
INTO WINE. 

' ' And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee ; and 
the mother of Jesus was there ; and both Jesus was called, and 
His disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, 
the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. 
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee ? 
Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the ser- 
vants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. And there were 
set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the puri- 
fying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 
Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And 
they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, 
Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And 
they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water 
that was made wine, and knew not whence it was (but the ser- 
vants which drew the water knew), the governor of the feast 
called the bridegroom, and saith unto him. Every man at the 
beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have well 
drunk, then that which is worse ; but thou hast kept the good 
wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana 
of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory ; and His discij^les 
believed on Him." — John ii. 1-11. 

THE first question which presents itself for ex- 
amination is, What is meant by the tldrd day, 
spoken of in the first verse? Commentators usually 
appear to tliink that it was the third day after the 



248 THE lord's miracles. 

calling of Nathaniel as recorded in the first chapter. 
They come to this conclusion because, they say, it 
would require two days to go from the Jordan, 
where John was baptizing, to Cana in Galilee, where 
this marriage took place. I hardly feel inclined to 
accept this as a satisfactory answer. In the first 
chapter I read that John, in company with two of 
Jiis disciples, saw Jesus coming, and said, "Beliold 
the Lamb of God." The two disciples then follow 
Jesus, and remain with Him. Then we are told that 
*'the day following, Jesus would go forth into Gali- 
lee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him. Follow 
Me." Then Philip findeth Nathaniel. This I sup- 
pose to have occurred on the way to Galilee, some- 
time during tlie first day's journey. Then it must 
be remembered that weddings almost universally oc- 
curred in oriental countries at night. This, then, 
would give two full days for the journey into Gali- 
lee, supposing that the wedding took place on tiie 
night of the third day after Christ is recognized as 
a divine teacher by the disciples of John. 

The disciples spoken of here as being invited with 
Jesus to this feast, and who accompanied Him to the 
marriage, were the five that He had just accepted, 
as the twelve were not yet chosen. 

Clirist's presence at a marriage feast, sanctifying 
all domestic and social life by His presence, has so 
often been commented upon that I need say nothing 
upon this subject here. I will observe, however, 
that it affords a bold contrast to the practice of John 
the Baptist, whose mission was one of severe dis- 
cipline in the desert, typical of the duties of the 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 249 

parent and Sabbath-school teacher; while tlie per- 
sonal mission of Jesus, typical of the gospel min- 
ister, is to mingle with all classes, and cheer and 
encourage, holding forth as a reward of His mission 
to those who receive His doctrine, an acceptance to 
the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

''And xohen they wanted wine^ the mother of Jesus 
saith unto Him, They have no wine.'''' Many have 
supposed that, Jesus having lately arrived with His 
disciples, several persons fi'om the surrounding 
country, having heard of His fame, came to see 
Him, and were naturally invited by His friends to 
the feast, thereby greatly augmenting the number of 
invited guests, and thus accounting for the insuf- 
ficient supply of wine, as provision had not been 
made for many. Whether this was the case, or 
whether the insufficiency was the result of neglect 
and carelessness in looking over the supply, is not 
necessary here to inquire. 

John the evangelist calls Mary the "mother of 
Jesus," but Clirist Himself recognizes no such re- 
lationship. ''Woman" was a general term, carry- 
ing nothing of reproach in its meaning, nor, on the 
other hand, is it a term of endearment, like that of 
mother. It is quite similar to the word lady., as 
used with us at the present time. Christ addressed 
her by a term which signified that all carnal relation- 
ship was now at an end. She was no more to Him 
now than any other woman. It is a doctrine of the 
Roman Catholic Church that Marv is the mother of 
God, and they strenuously maintain this, in order to 
strengthen their grounds for giving her undue hom- 



250 THE lord's miracles. 

age and adoration. I am sorry to see that Rev. Dr. 
Hodge takes njiich the same view. I look upon 
Mary, especially on this occasion, as a type of the 
Jewish synagogue, or old covenant churcli. 

" What have I to do with thee, ivoman f ' Some 
have snpposed that this shonld be translated, " What 
is that to nsf^ as much as to say, "What is it to ns 
that they have no wine?" "It is neither your busi- 
ness nor mine tliat they have neglected to procure a 
sufficiency of wine." "We have nothing to do 
with it; it is not our business; leave it to those 
whose business it is to supply the deficiency." I 
must confess, that a superficial examination of the 
Greek words woidd incline one to accept this view ; 
but when we come to examine all the other passages 
wliere these words occur, I am compelled to declare 
in favor of our translation as being the correct one. 
The meaning is, " What have we in common .^" 
Luke tells us that a certain demoniac, who abode 
among the toml)s, " when he saw Jesus, he cried out, 
and fell down before Him, and witli a loud voice 
said, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son 
of the Most Higli ? I beseech Thee, torment me 
not." Here we liave the same words, and they can- 
not be translated in any other way ; and so I find in 
every other case where tliese words occur. The mean- 
ing is clear. Mary was a Jewess, awaiting the estab- 
lishment of a temporal kingdom. Jesus, now the 
Christ — the Anointed — is King of a spiritual king- 
dom. There is no affinit3\ He recognizes her no 
longer as His mother. She must no longer pretend to 
control Him as lier son. He is under no obligations to 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 251 

obey her now. Her dominion ends with the control 
she exercises over the servants at tlie feast. She 
rules the carnal; He the spiritual. The translation, 
" What is that to us," is a translation of the Roman 
Catholic Church, and is one of the many efforts to 
prove Mary to be the mother of God. Scio's Spanish 
translation has it, "What is that to you and to Me?'' 
Such a translation destroys the truth, fulness, and 
simplicity of the miracle, and consequently is to be 
rejected. 

^^ Mine hour is not yet come.^^ A¥hat hour did 
Jesus refer to ? Certainly not the hour of His 
passion. Was it the hour of the full establishment 
of His spiritual kingdom ? That was far away in 
the future. Was it the hour when He would openly 
by miracles manifest Himself to the world ? I think 
not, or He would not have performed this miracle at 
Mai-y's request, in the very same hour. Some sup- 
pose that tlie wine was not yet exhausted ; that a 
little later it would be all gone, and then would be 
His time to work a miracle by replenishing it. I 
am inclined to think that the hour referred to was 
an hour that all the Jews of that time were waiting 
for — the establishment of a great miraculous king- 
dom, in which the Messiah King would supply all 
the wants of His subjects, not by natural process, 
but by continuous miracle. Christ had now entered 
upon His public ministry, being now thirty years of 
age, and it was but natural that His mother should 
su])pose that that hour had fully come. Mary was 
right in supposing that that hour would come, and 
right in supposing that Jesus would usher it in, but 



252 THE LORD^S MIRACLES. 

she was wrong in supposing that it had ah-eady come. 
A long period must yet elapse before it could come. 
It was not to come under the old Mosaic dispensa- 
tion. It could not come under the dominion of the 
law. ISTor lias it yet come in all its plenitude. It 
cannot come under tlie dominion of the flesli. We 
must arise into the perfect spiritual kingdom, the 
New Jerusalem of God, before we can enjoy all its 
blessings. And yet Jesus, by the miracles which 
He performed while in tlie Hesh, gave a slight fore- 
taste of the coming of that time. It will come, how- 
ever ; and its coming will be usliered in by a mar- 
riage feast — the great marriage supper of the Lamb 
— in whicli tlie blessed Bridegroom will supply every 
invited guest with the new wine of the kingdom. 

I think that Mary understood something of this, 
although liei' perception may have been very im- 
perfect, for she immediately tells the servants, 
" Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Luke 
tells us that when He was twelve years of age, He 
told His mother in the temple, " AYist ye not that 
I must be about My Father's business?" That she 
kept all these sayings in her heart ; and she know- 
ing the prophecies, and the desire and expectation of 
her nation, and knowing Him to be the Almighty 
God, could not but expect that He would now show 
forth His glory. 

All such prophecies as that in the fifty-fifth chap, 
ter of Isaiah — "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come 
ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, 
without money and without price," — the Jews under- 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 253 

stood would be accomplished literally at the coining 
of the Messiah, and I see no reason why Mary on 
this occasion slioiild not understand that now all this 
would be fulfilled. Prophecy had said, "In that day 
[that is, the hou?' which Jesus says had not yet come,] 
tlie mountains shall drop down new wine, and the 
hills shall flow with milk;" " Behold, the days come, 
saitli the Lord, tliat the ploughman sliall overtake 
the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sow- 
eth seed ; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, 
and all the hills shall melt; and 1 will bring again 
the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall 
build the waste cities and inhabit them." 

Mary appears on this occasion to have been a sort 
of stewardess over the feast, as is evident from the au- 
thority she exercises over the servants. The Church, 
in like manner, admonishes her servants to be obedient 
to all that their Divine Head commands them to do. 

^' There v:jere set there six loaterpots of stone^ after 
the inamier of the purifying of the Jews^ containing 
two or three firkins ajneceT A firkin, or rather the 
Greek measure ti-an slated a firkin here, was nearly 
nine gallons, making from seventeen to twenty-five 
gallons to each waterpot, or about one hundred and 
twenty six gallons in all; certainly a good supply of 
wine for a wedding in a country village, and that, 
too, after the original supply had been exhausted. 
Outward appearances would justify us in saying that 
there must have been a large company, or the com- 
pany knew^ pretty well how to make use of good 
wine. I think, however, that but little of this wine 
was used on this occasion. So large a quantitj^ of 



254 THE LORD^S MIRACLES. 

most excellent wine (the best ever made in the 
world) would be very valuable, and would doubtless 
be considered a splendid wedding gift. There is no 
reason to suppose, then, that it w^as all used at this 
feast. It may have lasted for years, remaining as a 
standing testimonial to the company of the power of 
Him who here performed His first miracle. The 
large quantity is a proof that there could be no de- 
ception. It was just as easy for Him to convert one 
hundred and twenty-six gallons of water into wine 
as it would have been to convert one gallon. 

I do not wish it to be understood by these remarks 
tliat I am an advocate of wine drinking. What I 
desire is to bring out the trutlis contained in this 
passage of Scripture. I sludl not assert that tliis 
wine was intoxicating, or that it was not. If the 
Scriptures had told me, I should not hesitate to de- 
claj'e it; but they have not told me. To assert that 
Christ w^ould not have made fermented wine for a 
wedding feast, does not frighten me. It is pure as- 
sumption. AVine, in wluitever state it is found, is 
His creation. I know that we are told that God 
creates new wine, and man ferments it. Man has 
no more power to ferment wine than he has to make 
it. He may plant the vine and cultivate it; farther 
he cannot go. He cannot produce the grape, nor form 
the juice within it. He may extract the juice, and put 
it in a convenient place where fermentation will take 
place, but he has no more power to produce fermen- 
tation in tlie wine than lie has create it. I advocate 
tlie temperance cause, based upon the principle of 
doing good to our race and the suppression of vice; 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 255 

but every attempt to wrest the Scriptures to support 
any cause, wlietlier good or bad, I detest. That the 
iuimoderate use of wine was permitted under the 
old covenant is no more an argument in favor of 
intemperance than a multiplicity of wives permitted 
to David and Solomon is an argument in favor of 
adultery. I advocate temperance because I cannot 
open my ej^es without seeing that the habitual use 
of strong drink is a curse. I can be no friend to a 
vice which has laid four uncles and a half brother 
in drunkards' graves, especially wdien I see their 
families following the example of their debased and 
sottish fathers. 

" Six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the 
purifying of the Jevjs.'^^ Here we have the key to 
the whole miracle. The lesson hinges upon the 
meaning of this symbolical purification. But why 
are we told that there were six? Why were there 
not seven — the mystical number so often used among 
the Jews? I answer, simply because seven was a 
symbol of perfectness, and six of imperfectness, 
being a continual reminder that the purifications of 
the law failed in being perfect. (Heb. x. 1.) There 
was still another and a deeper purification required 
than could bo given by the law — a seventh, that 
would take away sin. Tliese waterpots were per- 
fectly clean. No dregs of wine were to be found in 
them. They were not old wine casks, from whose 
dregs a new wine might be engendered. I remem- 
ber an effort made to prove immersion in baptism 
by the statement that there were large jars that the 
Jews immersed in. No one familiar with Jewish 



256 THE lord's miracles. 

customs could believe sucli a statement for a mo- 
ment. Had any one immersed in one of these jars, 
not only the water, but the jai', would have been pol- 
luted, and rendered unfit for a Jewish purification. 
The water, when used for purifying, was dipped out 
of the jar and poured over the hands and feet, tlius 
making running or living water of it. 

'''Jesus saith unto them^ Fill the waterpots with 
watery Water is the symbol of God's word. The 
antitype of this command was given by Christ to His 
apostles after His resurrection: ^'Go ye into all the 
world, and preach tlie gospel to every creature." 
The servants are commanded here to fill up the 
waterpots with water, and then "to draw out and 
bear it to the governor of the feast." The command 
comes to-day no less distinctly to the ministers or 
servants of Christ's Churcli to fill up their own 
vessels with tlie water of life — the living word — and 
then to draw from that source wine for His thirsty 
Church. 

" The governor of the feasV^ was probably an in- 
vited guest, an equal. A servant would not speak 
so freely. He was one wlio certainly knew the 
difference between old and new wine, consequently 
he becomes typical of a sanctified believer. 

And now to the miracle itself. Shall we believe 
it? If Christ was God, I see no difficulty in believ- 
ing that He had power to perform such a miracle. 
The Almighty Creator of the universe can as easily 
convert one hundred and twenty-six gallons of water 
into wine as He can convert one hundred and twenty- 
six gallons of the sap that passes through the pores 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 25T 

of a grape vine by a natural process, and by instru- 
ments which He Himself has prepared. In the one 
He makes the vine, He makes the grape, and He 
makes the wine. In the other the wine is made in- 
stantaneously. Almighty creative power is em- 
ployed in both. Is not one as much of a miracle as 
the other? The great difference appears to be that 
tlie two modes belong to two kingdoms — one to this, 
tlie other to tliat "liour" of Christ's yet to come. 
The miracle performed in Cana of Galilee was but 
an anticipation of that hour. "Blessed are tliey 
that" shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Blessed 
arc tliey that shall drink the new wine of the king- 
dom. Blessed are they who sliall partake of the 
marriage supper in that world of eternal miracle, or 
rather wliere what we now look upon as miracle 
shall be the common order of the kingdom. 

This now leads us to a better apprehension of the 
difference between tlie wine of the old and that 
of the new dispensation. The former came by a 
natural process. Tlie vine was planted within an 
enclosure and carefully cultivated — typical of those 
immortal souls planted within the bounds of God's 
visible kingdom on earth, where they are trained 
and instructed in His word by human instrumentality. 
The grapes are gathered; and then comes a crushing, 
bruising process, typical of the death imposed by the 
law for sin. And now follows the fermenting pro- 
cess, by w^hich a germ of yeast impregnates the whole 
dead mass, imparting to it new^ life and vitality. But 
in this fermenting process Satan mingles his poison. 
God sows good seed, but the enemy sows tares. 



258 riiE lord's miracles. 

There is a mingling here of good and evil. The 
wine contains the elements of cheerfulness, of joy 
and happiness. It is exhilarating and makes glad 
the heart of man, but at the same time it inebriates 
and degrades. Such is the wine of the old dispen- 
sation, and when taken to excess it produces madness. 
Josephus speaks of the Jews during the last days of 
the ancient kingdom, and during its destruction by 
Titus, as acting like madmen, men intoxicated, and 
men filled to excess with wine. Kow, the wine of 
the new kingdom possesses all the invigorating, ex- 
hilarating, beneficent qualities of the old, but with- 
out Satan's tares. It can only benefit, yield joy, and 
peace, and happiness, but possesses none of its baleful 
effects. It contains no ingredient that can injure. 
Again, the wine of the old dispensation is made from 
the juice of the grape — the blood and strength and 
toil of the member of the visible kingdom ; while 
the wine of the new dispensation is made from pure 
water — emblem of the gospel — and blood — not the 
blood of the disciple, but the blood of Christ. "This 
cup is the New Testament in My hloocl^ which is 
shed for many for the remission of sins." 

^'T/iis heghinwg of miracles did Jesus in Carta of 
Galilee^ Alford very properly translates this pas- 
sage: '^Tkis wrought Jesus as the heginning of His 
'irdradesP I think thei'e can be no reasoii wdiy Al- 
ford is not correct, as this was undoubtedly the first 
miracle that Jesus performed ; and if such is the 
case, it completely annihilates all the miracles re- 
corded by tradition as having been performed by 
Him in His infancy. In all the early life of Jesus, 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 259 

until He was thirty years of age, only one sentence 
of all His conversation during these years has been 
recorded by the evangelist, and handed down to us 
for our instruction — ''Wist ye not that I must be in 
My Fatlier's house f But wlien Scripture has been 
silent, that hoary-headed old liar, Traditio7i, has not 
failed to proclaim his babbling nonsense to the world. 
I will now refer to some of the miracles of the in- 
fancy ; and as we proceed in the study of these true 
miracles, we shall have abundant opportunity of see- 
ing how false and silly are all those not recorded by 
the inspired evangelists. The apochryphal gospels 
contain a string of childish miracles, so different 
from those recorded in the inspired record, that we 
may well know that "These are wiitten that ye 
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God, and that believing ye might have life through 
His name;"' while those were written only to deceive, 
and doubtless to cast ridicule upon the cause of our 
Redeemer. But to proceed. Some children refused 
to play W'ith Jesus, but ran away and hid themselves, 
but He, pursuing them, changed them into kids. An- 
other child ran against Him and threw Him down, 
whereupon He, being exasperated, exclaimed, "x\s 
thou hast made Me to fall, so shalt tliou fall and not 
rise;" at the same time the child fell down and ex- 
pired. He has a dispute with His school-master 
about the way He should pronounce some Hebrew^ 
letters, when His master strikes Him. He curses 
His master, whose arm withers, and he falls upon 
his face and dies. At five years of age He is mak- 
ing sparrows out of clay in a pool of water on the 



260 THE loed's miracles. 

Sabbath day. Another boj' comes along, and drains 
off the pool of water. Jesus curses Him, and im- 
mediately he dries up and dies. These things went 
on till Joseph says to Mary, "Henceforth let us 
keep Him within doors, for wliosoever sets himself 
against Him pei'ishes. Jesus enters the house of a 
dyer, and throws all the clothes sent in by different 
persons to be dyed of different colors into a big ket- 
tle of dye. The dyer comes in, very much enraged, 
and, taking the clothes from the kettle, finds that 
each one is colored according to order. In company 
with some other boys He makes birds and animals 
out of clay, and then blowing upon those He had 
made, they all ffy and "run away; and then when He 
calls them tliey come back, and eat out of His hands. 
While an infant, in His mother's arms. He com- 
manded a palm tree to stoop down and deliver its 
fruit to His mother; and the tree obeyed. Going to 
a well for a pitcher of water. He broke the pitcher, 
and brought the water back in His cloak. The night 
He was born, an ox and an ass knelt down and vvor- 
sl)ipped Him. 

(3n reading such trasli as this, one feels almost in- 
clined to say, as lie finds repeatedly such expressions 
as "The holy child Jesus," that if tradition told the 
truth, He must have been a verv unholy youno; devil. 
Shame on that church which accepts tradition as 
equal to Scripture. How immensely different these 
traditions are from the unvarnished history of the 
first miracle as recorded by the inspired evangelist. 
The miracles of the infancy, even had they been 
true, would have been but low conjurer's tricks, with 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 261 

no meaning, and breathing nothing but a spirit of 
seltishness and revenge; while on the other hand, 
the miracles performed by our Lord Jesus are les- 
sons of divine wisdom, and manifest the character 
and spirit of the Son of God. 

'^ There were set there six waterjpots of stone, after 
the manner of the purifying of the JewsP I have 
said that this was the key to the proper understand- 
ing of the whole miracle, and I now add, will aid us 
materially in the interpretation of the miracles which 
follow. These waterpots w-ere set apart by the 
family for purposes of purification. Pure water in 
all these cases w^as a symbol of God's word. We 
have in the Old and ISTew Testaments two great pro- 
phets, one the counterpart of the other; one the 
personification of the Old Covenant, and the other 
of the new — Moses and Jesus. As blood was a 
sjnnbol of the law, and w^ine more directly a symbol 
of a germ of new life infiltrated into a dead law, we 
are not surprised to find that the very first miracle 
performed in public by Moses was turning water 
into blood, while the first miracle performed by 
Jesus was to turn water into wine. (Ex. vii. L4-18.) 
Moses stretches his rod over the waters of Egypt, 
and they become blood. Jesus stretches His hand 
over the waters used for the purification of Israel, 
and they become wine. Moses performs all his 
miracles by the instrumentality of the rod. "The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." The rod must chas- 
tise all who break God's law. Christ uses no rod ; 
His is a mission of peace. Moses' miracles are all 
curses to the enemies of Israel, and very few, if any, 



262 THE lord's miracles. 

of those performed in the desert were not attended 
with a curse upon Israel, except those performed be- 
tween th"e Ked Sea and Sinai; while but one of 
Christ's is not attended witli a blessing, and that 
one, the miracle performed upon tlie barren fig-tree, 
tliis being a symbol of the curse poured out upon 
apostate Israel, because they rejected the Savior of 
the world. 

The ruler of the feast did not know where the 
new wine came from, but ''Hhe servants lohich drew 
the water knewT lie who enjoys the wine of the 
kingdom, may not know the process by which it is 
brought to him — how it was made, or from whence 
it came, but God's ministers should knuw^, and do, 
if they are not false propliets. They may not know 
all the secrets of its manufacture. Tlieir duty is to 
obey; draw the water and pour it in the appointed 
place; draw off and bear to the guests; and they will 
find that, in tlie process, it has been converted into 
rich wine. The servants of God's kingdom who 
preacli the gospel may not know the process by 
which souls are saved, but they know that tliat 
wliich is symbolized by purifying water, the word 
preached, under the pow'er of the Holy [Spirit be- 
comes eihcacious to tlie saving of the soul. Paul 
says, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
to save tlieni that believe." 

''^ Every man at the heyinn'uuj doth set forth good 
wine, and when men have well drunk., then that 
which is worse; hut thou hast kej^t the good wine 
until now.''\ Oh ! how true. The world gives its 
good wine first. Witness the process. The pleas- 



WATER TURNED IKTO WlNE. 2G3 

nres of tlie world arc sweet at first, but they end in 
husks — the food of swine. The prodigal's first en- 
trance into the world, after the resti'aints to which 
he had been snbject at home were all severed, was 
doubtless happy indeed; but he soon spends all, then 
becomes a servant to an outside Gentile, and finally 
is sent to feed swine; and starving, miserable, poor, 
and naked, he would gladly partake of the swine's 
food, but no man gave unto him. 

The great empire of this world, whose golden 
head reared itself in majestic grandeur before Neb- 
uchadnezzar's vision, ended in feet made of iron, 
mixed with brittle clay. Nineveh and Babylon, 
whose riches and wonders astonished the nations of 
antiquity, all faded away into masses of unshapely 
ruin. 

Egypt, that built the pyramids, is to-day a land of 
miserable beggars, who live by robbing strangers, 
and selling them the bones of their ancestors. 
Greece and Rome are but skeletons of what they 
once were. 

But look at it in another aspect, and see how true 
it again appears. In youth we are happy. These 
bodies, which have been created by a natural process, 
as all animal bodies are, grow and arrive at m.aturity, 
being comparatively free from pain in youth ; but as 
they verge on to old age, the wine of life becomes 
more and more bitter, till nothing but the dregs re- 
main — life is exhausted and death follows. Such is 
the record of this world, in whatever aspect we view 
it. It perishes with the using. 

Nor is this alone applicable to the world. It is 



264 THE lord's miracles. 

the history of the old covenant as well as the history 
of the world. Under the old dispensation we com- 
mence well; we think tliat we can keep the law, and 
we may flatter ourselves tliat we do for a while; but 
it becomes more and more heavy, until, lil<e a moun- 
tain weight, it crushes us into the grave. How often 
we ])ave observed this great truth as we have read 
the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. They 
almost invariably commence well, continue faithful 
for a time, and end in disgrace. On account of the 
peculiar relation they bore to the old dispensation, 
there are but very few exceptions to this rule. 

But when we have learned that the law will not 
save us, and we lose all confidence in our own right- 
eousness, then comes a voice saying, "There is no 
wine.'^ The old covenant church, finding that she is 
incapable of saving lierself or lier seed, appeals to her 
Son, telling Him of tlie world's great need and the 
church's desire. The wine is exhausted. The world 
cannot save us. The old covenant cannot save us. 
Tlie law cannot save us. All has vanished with the 
using. The wine is gone. The leather bottles, once 
so full and plump, are cast like old rags into a corner. 
The bitter, sour wine is all gone. What is to be 
done? A burning desire has been excited even by 
the bitterness of this vile stuff, wliich, if not quenched, 
must burn to the very depths of hell. Oh! what is 
to be done? Here we see the similarity to the case 
of the prodigal, when the old wine from his father's 
house was exhausted. "There was a great famine 
in the land," which, the prophet says, " was not a 
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of 



WATER TURNED INTO WINE. 265 

liearing the words of tlie Lord." None but a 
wonder-vvorkiug God can quench this desire. None 
but an Almighty Redeemer can supply the want. 

And His command is given: "Fill the water- 
pots." Kot the old leather bottles, which are now 
useless and will not liold new wine, and which are 
naturally, from the very beginning, polluted and 
polluting, on account of the animal nature of the 
material of which they are composed. Fill the 
stone jars of the law's purification with pure water. 
This is the labor of the gospel minister. The church 
is suffering with a famine, and she calls upon Jesus 
for aid. She trains her ministers for the occasion, 
and He now calls upon them to fill up the water- 
pots with living water — the pure, unadulterated 
Word of God. These obey the command, and ad- 
minister it to the guests, who find upon trial that it 
is the very best of living wine. The work is done, 
and oh, what a change I The poor, miserable, ragged, 
hungr}^ filthy tender of Gentile swine is seated at 
his father's table, clothed like a prince, and in his 
right mind. The chafif driven before the wind, 
which once formed the feet of iron and clay of Ke- 
buchadnezzar's imrge, is now transformed into the 
mighty empire of King Immanuel, whose gates of 
pearl shame into insignificance the once golden- 
headed Babylon. The old covenant has given way 
to the new, and the gospel has supplanted the law. 
Oh! is not the new wine better than the old? The 
law comes by a natural process from Moses; but 
grace and truth — the wine of the new covenant — 
comes by Jesus Christ. These mortal bodies, which, 
12 



266 THE lord's miracles. 

like tlie old wine, were formed by a natural process, 
will also be supplanted by a new creation. Oh! the 
new wine is better than the old ! 

^^He manifested forth His glory. Trench, on the 
Miracles, says the word "glory" here means Christ's 
divinity. "We beheld His glory": He manifested 
to us His divinity. The silly nonsense of tradition 
has shown the folly of men. Christ's first miracle 
reveals His glory. And the glory revealed to those 
who drink of the wine of the new covenant will be 
manifest wdien the dregs of earth, its riches and its 
kingdoms and its honors, have all gone the way of 
the old wine. 

" His disciples helieved on HiinP Those wdio 
drink the wine of the new" covenant believe on 
Jesus. There are no exceptions. They know His 
power to save. They know that the old wine must 
be exhausted, but they know that the new is far 
better. The world must vanish, the law perish; 
but the new wine endures for ever. "x\.n angel's 
arm cannot snatch me from the grave," but, thanks 
to Him that sitteth upon the throne, if I have known 
the efficacy of the new wine, " legions of angels can- 
not confine me there." 



THE MmACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 

"Now it came to pass, while the multitude pressed upon Him and 
heard the word of God, that He was standing by the lake of 
Gennesaret ; and He saw two boats standing by the lake : but 
the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their 
nets. And He entered into one of the boats, which was Si- 



MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 267 

mou's, aud asked liim to put out a little from the land. And 
He sat down and taught the multitudes out of the boat. And 
when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Put out into the 
deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answered 
and said, Master, we toiled all night, and took nothing ; but at 
Thy word I will let down the nets. And when they had this 
done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes ; and their nets 
were breaking, and they beckoned unto their partners in the 
other boat, that they should come and help them. And they 
came, and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 
But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, 
saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For 
he was amazed, and all that were with him, at the draught 
of the fishes which they had taken ; and so were also James 
and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. 
And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not ; from henceforth thou 
shalt catch men. And when they had brought their boats to 
land^ they left all, and followed Him. — Luke v. 1-11. — Revised 
Version. 

Considering the miracles of our Lord to be les- 
sons of divine wisdom, intended to instruct and 
edify His Cburchj and not a mere record of tricks 
performed by a conjurer to amuse or astonish an 
ignorant and gaping crowd, I shall endeavor to 
present such analogies as I find running through the 
record and history of the Church, showing God's 
wonderful dealings with His people in all times and 
in all ages. This miracle is of peculiar value, from 
the fact that tlie fishermen here concerned after- 
wards became preachers of the Gospel ; or, as Christ 
expresses it, ^^flsliers of inenP 

Jesus stands upon the shores of the lake of Gali- 
lee. A crowed presses upon Him, to hear the Word 
of God. Two boats, belonging to fisliennen, were 
there. The owners had gone out of them, and were 
washing their nets. We find sometliing very sig- 



268 THE lord's mikacles. 

nificant in this, as the nets were the implements of 
their business. After toiling in vain all night, and 
having aceomplislied nothing, they are now prepar- 
ing their nets for a future effort. This indicates that 
thej were men of perseverance. They were not 
lazj men, or they would have been resting after a 
night's toil, or idling away their time. We wonder 
if there were no corner grocery store there, where 
they could lounge around and do notliing. Doubt- 
less there were such lishermen then, as now, who 
found such places, where they could conveniently 
kill time while waiting another opportunity for 
catching iish. God says, "What thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy miglit." And the man who 
will say in this busy age that he can Und nothing to 
do is either a liar or a fool, if not both. 

^^They vjere vmshing tliGir netsT It has just been 
observed, that their nets were their tools. No sen- 
sible man will employ an artisau whose tools are all 
out of repair. If Jiis tools are dull, or rusty, or 
broken, it is a very fair proof that he himself is dull, 
and rusty, and broken, if not even in a worse condi- 
tion. No sensible man, in any business or employ- 
ment outside of that of preaching (I will not say 
preaching the gospel, because no man can preach the 
gospel without being prepared), would even think of 
going to work without tools; and yet we find a host 
of men, perfectly ignorant of the gospel, scattered 
about the country, prea(;liing ignorance. The fisher- 
men of Galilee washed their nets. Would that some 
of these self-called preachers would w^ash off some of 
their ignorance before attempting to catch men. 



MIEACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 269 

Christ enters Simon s boat, and now we find Si- 
mon with Him in the boat. He left washing his nets, 
and comes to sit at tlie feet of the Great Teacher, and 
wash his spiritual net from the dark night of igno- 
rance through which he had been toiling; and tliere 
he sat three years before he himself became a teacher 
of others. This proved his divine mission when he 
did go. Some tell us that the ignorant men who go 
about to-day are called of God. God, it is true, 
calls fishermen from tlieir nets, and men from the 
plow, and the anvil, and workshop; but He proves 
the call, by opening up for them a way to be edu- 
cated; and if He has not done this, it is proof evi- 
dent and manifest that He has not called them. If 
they cannot show that God has opened up a way by 
which they may be taught, then we may consider 
them as but cheats and impostors. 

IN^or is this all. By their false pretences they en- 
courage others in ignorance and laziness. Ignorance, 
in fact, in such men is tlie result of laziness. Sliame 
on the lazy men, who, year after year, pretend to 
preach the gospel, and yet have not energy enough, 
or are too lazy, even to learn the common rules of 
their mother tongue. Ignorance is a proof of lazi- 
ness, and both belong to Satan's kingdom, and are 
marks of the beast. God's kingdom is life, and light, 
and energy, and knowledge. Shun all such im- 
postors as you would the plague. If you tell me that 
these men must work to support their families, and 
have no time to study, then I tell you that jou. prove 
that God has not called them. Peter had to w^ork 
to support his family, but when Christ called him He 



2?0 THE lord's miracles. 

provided for liis family, and filled tlie net full, even 

to breaking. These men are without excuse, other 

than that of being actuated by an ignorant, crazy 

fanaticism. If they wish us to believe them, let 

them present the proofs whicli the fishermen of 

Galilee presented when sent out to preach the gospel 

to the Gentile world, and we will follow them. Let 

them come, like Peter, to the house of Cornelius, 

the first Gentile convert, with three and a half years' 

instructions at the feet of John and Jesus; with 

eight, or, as some say, twelve years' instruction in 

and around the temple at Jerusalem bj' the Holy 

Ghost, sent down from on high, filling him with a 

knowledge of tlie Scriptures, and the ability to speak 

ail languages, and tlien we will believe that tlieir 

mission is divine. How often the infamous lie is 

cast in our faces that Christ called and sent out 

ignorant fishermen to preach the gospel. Yes, He 

did call ignorant fishermen, but He did not send them 

out until tliey were educated fully up to the standard 

of the highest doctors of divinity of our age. Not 

one single Gentile convert was made until these men 

had received twelve or fifteen years of most superior 

instruction under the guidance of a divine teac^her — 

Christ in the flesh and Clirist in the Holy Comforter. 

'' Master^ we have toiled all nighty and have taken 

nothing ; nevertheless at Thy word I will let down 

the netr We observe here the strono; faitli of Peter. 

The night— the yOiV"^ time to catch fish — was past, 

and they liad toiled all that night and caught nothing; 

yet Peter's faith was strong in the Lord. Is it not 

strange that he should afterwards deny Hiin? Did 



MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 271 

he not know that He had, even if crucified and pnt 
to death, power to rise again from the grave? 

It is not necessary that the miracle here should be 
the creation of an immense quantity of fishes, but 
that by Divine power they should be brought together 
in this place at this time. But He who creates and 
feeds the fish has power to re create or bring together 
at His own will. ''Thou madest Him to have do- 
minion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put 
all things under His feet; all sheep and oxen and 
the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, and the 
fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the 
paths of tlie seas." (Psalm viii. 6-8.) 

" The net braked " The net was hreahingr Al- 
ford translates, '^loas about breaking ;^^ not that it 
did break, but was just on the point of breaking. 
This makes better sense than our translation, and is 
undoubtedly correct. If the net had been broken 
tlie fish would have escaped, which was not the case. 

Peter's expression, "Depart from me, for I am a 
sinful man, O Lord," was from a sudden sense of his 
own unholiness, just as the Israelites at Mt. Sinai 
exclaimed, "Let not Grod speak, lest we die." Such 
language is often found in Scripture as expressions 
of humility, and we ourselves use them when we feel 
our own un worthiness before God. 

But do we realize that every similar event of life 
is accomplished by Divine power? God's language 
,on tliis point is emphatic and decisive: "Except the 
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build 
it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman 
waketh but in vain." The same may be said of 



272 THE lord's miracles. 

every event of life. All onr success tlirongh life, 
and our salvation in death, depends upon Him who 
worketh in us to will and to do of His own good 
pleasure. 

'^ James and John were partners with ShnonP 
Observe here how God chooses His servants from 
among the occupations of early life most adapted to 
fit them for the field of labor to whicli He destines 
tliem in later years. The fishers of men are cliosen 
from among the fisliermen of Galilee. David, the 
shepherd of Israel, was chosen from tlie care of his 
father's flocks. The Magi of tlie East, wliose favorite 
study was astrology, were chosen to be tlie first to 
worsliip the Star of Bethlehem in His cradle. 

Fishermen of men, — ^^ From henceforth thou shalt 
catch men,'' — AVhat does this mean ? Undoubtedly, 
tliat tliey sliould become apostles, and catch men for 
Christ's kingdom, using tlie gospel as they had for- 
merly used their nets, to catch fish. This is explained 
by the prophet Jeremiah : " Behold, I will send for 
man}' fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish 
them ; and after that I will send for many hunters, 
and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and 
from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." 
The " mountains " and "rocks," in which they had 
taken refuge, were a "refuge of lies." (Jer. xvi. 
16-21.) 

But is this the true meaning ? May we not be mis- 
taken in this ? Is there any analogy between the 
taking of live fish in their native element, where they 
are perfectly contented and happy, and hauling them 
out to die in an element where they cannot live ? 



MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 273 

Julian the Apostate observed, that the Galilean did 
indeed most aptly term His apostles "fishers," for as 
tlie tisherman draws out tlie iish from waters where 
they were free and happy, to an element in which 
they cannot breathe, but must presently perish, so 
did tliese." Trench answers this by saying, that the 
word Zi^oypcov, means, not only to catch, but "to take 
them for life, and not for death ;" and the Revised 
Version has ^Hake alive^' in the margin. But Al- 
ford rejects this translation, calling it too subtle, and 
not according to the rules of emphasis. That in 
both cases in which it is used here, one in which it 
is applied to men, and in the other to tish, it merely 
means to catch. It is quite amusing to see the way 
these theologians wander, groping in a fog, when a 
very little light would put them right. The word 
undoubtedly means to catch alive, and has the same 
meaning in both places. Eoth the fish and the men 
are caught alive in their own native element, and 
taken out into an element into which tliey cannot 
live, and they both die. How is this ? Where is 
the analogy ? 

I answer, that we will find no analogy if we look 
for it upon the surface. We must look elsewhere 
for it. Sucli an analogy would never have been 
sought in the wrong place if our theologians had 
gone to the depth of the miracle. 

The sea is the pagan world ; the ship was the 
kingdom of Israel, now tlie Church of Christ, and 
the fishermen her ministers. The night of toil, i^ 
which they caught nothing, was the old dispensation. 



274: THE lokd's miracles. 

And oh ! wliat a long, tempestuous night it was ! 
How many terrible waves had dashed over the ves- 
sel during that stormy niglit ! The dragon of Egypt 
had risen up in foaming rage against lier, but he and 
his armies were buried beneath her own Red Sea 
waves. " The horse and his rider both he cast into 
the sea." The luirricanes of the desert had blown 
over her; but she was permitted to weather them all, 
and pass in safety over the Jordan. Canaan's 
miglity hosts had daslied in fury against lier sides, 
but Joshua's conquering arm had laid them in the 
dust. Philistia and Nineveh had hurled their fiery 
darts at her, but she had resisted them all. But in 
the marshes of Babylon she hung her harps upon 
the willows, almost wrecked in the mire of despond. 
At last the day breaks, and we find her safely an- 
chored on the banks of the Jordan, and her fishermen 
busily engaged in washing their nets by the light of 
the morning star, John the Baptist, " a burning and 
shining light, in which they rejoiced to walk for a 
season." 

The night of toil is now ended, but they have 
cauglit nothing. Not a single nation has been con- 
verted to a knowledge of the true God. The ship 
is safe, but she has brought no pagan nation into her 
bosom. The promise given to Abraham, that in her 
all the nations of the eartli should be blessed, was as 
yet unfulfilled. No nation or tribe had as yet been 
drawn under the folds of her banner. True, a 
temple had been erected in Egypt, but its adherents 
were Jewish merchants who carried on business in 



MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 275 

Alexandria, and owed allegiance to Jerusalem. The 
Abyssinians had received circumcision in Solomon's 
time, but tliey did not fraternize v/itli the Jews, ex- 
cept as some proselyte or Jewish captive wended his 
way up to pay his dues at Jerusalem. True, a few 
proselytes had been made, but wliat were they amonp- 
the millions which comprised the great sea of pagan- 
ism 1 

But Christ comes, and lo! a great multitude, that 
no man could number, of all nations, kindreds and 
tongues, are gathered around Him who stands at the 
helm in Mount Sion, 

Now, observe the peculiarity of Christ's language 
on this occasion. He does not say, "1 will make 
you fishers of souls.^^ He says, "I will make you 
fishers of meny Man, in his carnal nature, is an 
inhabitant of the deep sea of the pagan world. An 
enemy of God, he must be slain by the sharp sword 
that proceedeth out of His mouth. He must die to 
his native element — Satan's kingdom. His carnal 
nature must be slain. To the great deep of Satan — 
the Abyss of Revelation, he must die for ever. The 
carnal nature must die; it cannot see the kingdom 
of God. The new life as a son of God is spoken 
of in Scripture as a new creation. As carnal men, 
those taken in the gospel net by Christ's ministers, 
die to their own native element — sin; but they walk 
in newness of life in Clirist. Here, then, we behold 
a perfect analogy. 



276 THE LORD^S MIRACLES. 



CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. 

"Now it came to pass ou a certain day, that He went into a ship 
with His disciples ; and He said unto them, Let us go over 
unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But 
as they sailed He fell asleep ; and there came down a stoi-m of 
wind ou the lake ; and they were filled with water (were filling 
with water), and were in jeopardy. And they came to Hira, 
and awoke Him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then He 
arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water ; and 
they ceased, and there was a calm. And He said unto them, 
Where is your faith ? And they being afraid wondered, saj'ing 
one to another, What manner of man is this I for He com- 
mandeth even the winds and water, and they obey Him ?" — 
Luke viii. 22-25, 

The solution of the lesson tauglit b}^ this miracle 
is very plain and simple, if we only hear in mind the 
imagery common to all the miracles and parables. 
The ship is the ancient Jewish church; the sea, the 
pagan world; tiie winds, false doctrine; tlie storm, 
the rasre of the heathen and infidel as^ainst the ti*nth 
when impelled by false doctrine. The carnal Christ 
of \he old dispensation sleeps; the Shekinah burns 
dimly and finally goes out, bat the Holy Comforter 
of the new dispensation neitlier slumbers nor sleeps. 

Mark tells us that tliis miracle occurred on the 
evening of the same day in which Jesus had spoken 
the paral)les recorded by Him, and so fully given in 
the thirteenth chapter of Matthew; and if we look 
for a connecting link here, we must naturally expect 
it to be in some way symbolical of the kingdom of 
heaven, to which all of those parables refer. Many 
wonder why this miracle should be displaced in the 
history given by Matthew; but I find no difficulty in 



CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. 277 

tlie case, as I do not by any means consider the 
four gospels as so many connected histories of chron- 
ological events, but a series of circumstances, classi- 
fied by each evangelist according to the peculiar 
lessons they were intended to convey, and arranged 
so that miracles and parables having more or less the 
same affinity and the same object in view should be 
connected, and thus show their relation to each other. 

After a hard day's work, our Savior desired to 
withdraw from the multitude, and pass over to the 
other side of the lake. But before the journey was 
accomplished, a sudden storm comes down upon 
them — no unusual thing on those small lakes sur- 
rounded by mountains, w^here the wind often breaks 
suddenlv throuo^h some of the vallevs or 2:oro^es, and 
comes down with the force of a Iiurricane. 

" But as they sailed He fell asleepT We find in 
the Old Testament a liistor}^ quite similar to tliis — 
Jonah, fleeing from duty, sleeps in a storm. Jesus, 
resting from duty, slee[)s in a storm. The one is 
loaded with conscious guilt; the other, whose pure 
soul no guilt could tarnish, sleeps in tlie human na- 
ture, while the divine controls tlie winds and the 
waves, and is even Himself the Master of the ele- 
ments. 

" He arose and rebuked the wind^ and the raging 
of the water ; and, they ceased^ and there was a cahn^ 
And now how different here is the result from that 
of the case of Jonah ? This sleeper arises and quells 
the storm. He speaks the w^ord, "Peace, be still," 
and the elements obey His voice. In the other, the 
sleeper must be given over to the powder of tlie ele- 



278 THE lord's miracles. 

merits. He must be cast into the sea ; and oh ! what 
a world-wide history have we here ! Jonah, the 
champion of the law, must be swallowed up bj the 
raging sea, but the storm itself is destroyed by the 
voice of Him who is the heart and soul of the gos- 
pel. Or, carrying the figure still further, supposing 
the ship to be ancient Israel, and tlie sea tlie lieatlien 
or Gentile world, Israel sleeping through the long 
night of the (31d Covenant ages, is only aroused by 
the armies of Vespasian and Titus, to be cast into 
tlie surging waves of the heatlien world, engulfed 
and buried ; while Christ speaks the words, " Peace, 
be still," and the Gentile nations *' beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning 
hooks." Oh, how true ! To apostate Israel shall be 
given no other sign than that of the prophet Jonah. 
How have they been for ages swallowed up of the 
Gentile world ? Will you tell me that these miracles 
are but the simple tricks of a conjurer, or are they 
prophecies whose fulfilment is but part of the world- 
wide history of the manifestations of a wonder-work- 
ing God in His dealings with our race ? And oh ! 
how true it was, that during that dark, stormy night 
of the old dispensation, the Lord had apparently 
gone to sleep, and the vessel was fast filling with 
water, — not the pure running water of the Jordan, 
but the muddy waves of a shallow, stormy sea, and 
they were in jeopardy. They had struck upon the 
marshy shallows of old Babylon. Foreign armies, 
like deluging waves, had rolled over and devastated 
their country ; had destroyed their magnificent tem- 
ple and carried away its golden treasures, and sold 



CHKIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. 279 

the flower of the nation into bondage. And the 
storm still rages. Babylon liad given way to Persia, 
and Persia to Greece, and Greece to Home, the 
waves of each in turn dashing over her their peculi- 
arities of false religion. And our Lord sleeps! Tlie 
light of the Shekinah had deserted the temple for 
ever. The living oracle of prophecy was now silent. 
For four hundred years no prophet had said, " Thus 
saith the Lord." 

But when His disciples, feeling themselves lost, 
come to Him crying, '' Lord, save, or we perish," 
then the sleeper rises like a giant refreshed with 
slumber; rises from Joseph's new^ tomb, amid the 
salt sea-waves of tlie soldiers of Pontius Pilate, who 
stand trembling around His grave, and by the light 
of Pentecostal fire He commands the powers of 
darkness, " Peace, be still," and the Church of the 
new dispensation rides like a noble ship safely into 
the harbor of eternal peace. Luke says that " He 
rebuked the wind and the raging of the water." 
Similar language to this we find in the one hundred 
and sixth Psalm. '' He rebuked the Red Sea also, 
and it was dried up ; so He led them through the 
depths as through a wilderness, and He saved them 
from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed 
them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters 
covered their enemies; there was not one of them 
left." The storm raised by their own w'inds of false 
doctrine, error, deception, and falsehood, in the end 
overwhelm them, and they perish in the pit wliich 
their own hands have dug for God's people. 

Again, in the eighty-ninth Psalm, we read, " 



280 THE lord's miracles. 

Lord God of Hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto 
Thee ? Thou rulest tlie raging of the sea ; wlien the 
wavxs thereof arise. Thou stillest them. Thou hast 
broken Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, as one that is slain. 
Thou hast scattered Thine enemies with Thy strong 
arm." 

Moses stretched his rod over the waters, the rod 
probably being a symbol of the authority of the di- 
vine law; but Christ, in the living voice, gives the 
command, and He is obeyed. 

And here, again, tlie idea that the sea is a symbol 
of tlie heathen world gives us a more enlarged view 
of the symbolical meaning of the passage of the Is- 
raelites through the Red Sea. It is not only a type 
of the hour of death, but a symbol of the believer's 
passage through Satan's kingdom in this world. We 
are told that on that occasion the waters were con- 
gealed (probably frozen) in the midst of the sea. 
How often would the wicked have overwhelmed the 
Church of God, had they not been held in check by 
the fear of divine retribution, restrained by the fear 
of future vengeance; their power paralyzed, con- 
gealed by the fear of the rod accompanying Moses' 
law\ 

As there is no record of the disciples ever having 
been baptized with water, and no inference of any 
thing of the kind, except in the case of two, of 
whom it is said they were disciples of John, some 
of the early fathers have supposed that they were 
baptized into Christ on this occasion, as the Israelites 
were into Moses on crossing the Red Sea. There 
can be no doubt but their faith was increased by this 



CHEIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. 281 

eveDt. As for the baptism of the Israelites, eitlier 
in or with water, it is all perfect nonsense. "They 
believed God and His servant, Moses." Tliis be- 
lieving: in God was their baptism. Tlie disciples be- 
lieved that Jesus had power over the winds and the 
waves, and this baptism is of ten thousand times 
more consequence than all the water baptisms in the 
world. The great salt sea of paganism has baptized 
our world and om* race so deeply that it requires 
something more powerful than material water to re- 
move the foul stain of sin. 

There is still another, and a similar event in tlie 
history of our world, in which baptism is referred 
to as a saving element. Peter says, " God waited 
long in the days of ^oali, while the ark was a pre- 
paring, wherein few — that is, eight souls — were saved 
by water; the like figure whereunto even baptism 
doth also now save us (not tlie putting away of the 
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience 
toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 
Those who are baptized into Christ — not immersed 
into the sea of the pagan world, but safely housed 
in the ark — are saved, while tlie antediluvian world, 
like Pharaoh and his host, perish in the miglity 
waters. 

It has been a common custom in all ages to repre- 
sent the Church as a ship riding upon the surface of 
the sea, in times of peace upon its calm, tranquil 
bosom, and in times of adversity and persecution, as 
being tossed upon its stormy waves. Paintings of 
this kind have been exhibited in all ages since the 
establishment of Christianity. Kor is this a favorite 



282 THE lord's miracles. 

idea alone of professors of Christianity, but pagan 
authors and pagan artists have represented their 
gods as sailing on tlie sea in a ship. The Egyp- 
tians were fond of this representation. 

And the ancient prophets of Israel liave also fa- 
vored this imagery. Ezekiel, in liis prophecy against 
Tyrns, an apostate church, and corresponding with 
the Babylon of tlie Revelation, compares him to a 
ship full of merchandise, and tossed on a stormy 
sea. The whole of this prophecy will apply well to 
Israel, and in fact is far more applicable to Israel 
than to the ancient city of Tvre. Such languaire as 
tlie following can only be applied to an apostate: 
"Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every 
precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, topaz, 
and the diamond. ***** Thou art the 
anointed cherub, that covereth ; and I have set thee 
so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou 
hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones 
of lire; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day 
that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee." 
And how well the following language will apply to 
the destruction of apostate Judah, and his scatter- 
ing amid all the nations of the Gentile world: "Thy 
rowers have brought thee into great waters; the 
east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas. 
Thy riches, and thy fairs, and thy merchandise, thy 
mariners and thy pilots, * * * * ^nd all thy 
men of war that are in thee, and all thy company 
which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the 
midst of thy seas, in the day of thj^ ruin." Then 
the merchants are represented as crying, "What 



CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. 283 

city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of 
the sea, * * * * * in the time when thou 
shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the 
waters." 

Nor should we limit this figure of a ship to either 
a true or an apostate clmrch, for it is applicable to 
every living man. Does the carnal Christ sleep 
within 3^ou ? — I mean that instruction which you 
have received from Christ by human instrumentality ? 
Does the storm rage without? Are you in danger 
of ruin? Arouse the sleeper: call upon your God. 
Perchance He may arouse from His slumber and 
calm the troubled elements, and by doing so prove 
to you His almighty power over the dominion of 
Satan. 

But oh! sinnei', are you the one who sleeps? Are 
you locked in the icy embrace of soul-deatli? Have 
you hushed the voice of conscience for ever? Has 
ever the sleeping Christ abandoned you ? Then the 
fate of Tyrus is yours. 

Have you taken refuge in a false hope? Are you 
in a ship manned by pagan gods, whose captain and 
wdiose pilot is the prince of the power of the air ? 
Apollyon is his name — the Destroyer — the king 
of darkness, whose kingdom is the awful abyss, or 
bottomless pit, to which he would hasten you. If 
so, your ruin is certain and sure. 

Awake, arouse that sleeping conscience! Call 
upon Him who is mighty to save from the powers 
of death and hell; and cease not until a great calm 
has come into your soul, and you know that your 
faith in Jesus as the Savior of sinners is strongly 



284 THE lord's miracles. 

bound to Him, and your bark, guided by His al- 
mighty arm and His unerring eye, is peacefully, 
safely, and serenely guided straight on towards the 
haven of eternal peace. 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC, (3R POSSESSED 
OF DEVILS. 

"And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over 
against Gahlee. And when He went forth to laud, there met 
Him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time? 
and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the 
tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before 
Him. and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with Thee, 
Jesus, thou Son of God most high ? I beseech Thee, torment 
me not. (For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come 
out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him : and he was 
kept bound with chains and in fetters ; and he brake the bands, 
and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) And Jesus 
asked him, saying, What is thy name ? And he said. Legion : 
because many devils were entered into him. And they be- 
sought Him that He would not command them to go out into the 
deep. And there was there a herd of many swine feeding on 
the mountain : and they besought Him that He would suffer 
them to enter into them. And He suffered them. Then went 
the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine : and the 
herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were 
choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they 
fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. Then 
they went out to see what was done ; and" came to Jesus, and 
found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting 
at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind : and they 
were afraid. They also which saw it told them by what, means 
he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the 
whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about 
besought Him to depart from them ; for they were taken with 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 285 

great fear : and He went up into the ship, and returned back 
again. Now the man, out of whom the devils were departed, 
besought Him that he might be with Him : but Jesus sent him 
away, saying, Return to thine own house, and show how great 
things God hath done unto thee. And he went his waj', and 
published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus 
had done unto him.'' — Luke viii. 26-39. 

The subject which we now have before lis is 
probably one of the most difficult in Scripture. The 
subject of demoniacal possession is one which has 
puzzled the minds of theologians in all ages, and 
has ever been a stumbling block to" the weak and 
vacillating, and an object of sport and ridicule to the 
infidel. In taking up this question at present, I do 
not propose to remove all difficulties, and leave it 
perfectly clear to the minds of my readers, but only 
throw such light on the subject as I have at com- 
mand, hoping that, in the future, a more thorough 
study of God's word may remove all difficulties, and 
make the subject perfectly plain to all who are in- 
terested. 

On the very threshold of this miracle we meet 
with two important difficulties in the harmony of 
tlie records. Matthew^ tells us that, after passing 
the stormy night on the sea of Galilee, they came 
to the country of the Gergesenes. Mark and Luke 
tell us that they came to the country of the Gada- 
renes. I think this can easily be explained, as we 
are not told that they came into either of these 
towns, but into the "country;" that is, into territory 
claimed by one or perhaps both of these towns. 
However, I notice that both Alford and the Revised 
Yersion, doubtless copying Tischendorf's ancient 



286 THE lord's miracles. 

manuscript, has Gadarenes in Mattlievv, thus entirely 
removing this difficulty. 

The other difficulty is, that Matthew speaks of two 
demoniacs, while Mark and Luke mention onlv one. 
The usual way of reconciling this discrepancy, is to 
say that tliere were two^ as Matthew says, but one 
being a prominent character, Mark and Luke speak 
of only one, leaving the other in the background, as 
having been a companion with the first in his resi- 
dence in the tombs, but not partaking witli him 
Christ's healing power and His consequent conver- 
sion. This does not appear to me to be satisfactory. 

Some modern critic has sui^^c^ested that one was 
the madman and the other his keeper, but this does 
not answer the purpose. Tliere, is, however a way 
of reconciling tliis discrepancy that would give satis- 
faction, did it find favor in any of the ancient read- 
ings; but as it stands now, it is only assumption, and 
yet I prefer it to any otlier solution 1 have yet met 
with. It is, tliat Matthew wrote "a possessed of 
devils," but some transcriber, seeing immediately 
after the word " we," which appears to be the lan- 
guage of the devils, and not of the man, he has 
changed ''(^" to "two." This leads me to notice 
that Matthew uses the plural, " we," throughout the 
narrative, but Mai'k and Luke commence by using 
"I" as the language of the legion, and later change 
it to " we." Mark says that the man came and 
worshipped Jesus, and then the conversation com- 
mences with the legion, beginning with the singular 
and ending with the plural. 

This remarkable narrative brings us ii] contact with 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 287 

tlie wliole subject of demoniacal possession ; and not 
only this, but all other references to this subject in 
the Scriptures lead us to accept it as a historical 
truth. It does not belong to that class of questions 
growing out of those discrepancies caused hy the 
carelessness of transcribers, or the choosing of one 
name by one of the evangelists, and another name by 
another, when either would have been appropriate. 
This is a part of the sacred history, and is so inter- 
wov^en with it, that if it is false, then tlie gospels must 
be false also. We must accept it as it stands, or 
cast the gospels away. 

Nor can we say, as some do, that it was only a 
superstition of the time, and that Jesus favored it, 
either not daring to contradict, or caring to resist it. 
If Jesus had been a mere man, I would be willing 
to accept this theory ; but believing Him to be God — 
the truth, and the King of the truth — I cannot for 
a moment suspect Him of thus conniving at false- 
hood. 

Kor are we to confound this malad}' v,'ith diseases 
to which men are now subject, and were at that time. 
Jesus performed miracles upon the sick, restoring 
them to health, either by putting His hands upon 
them or speaking the word; but these cases of men 
possessed with devils were accurately specified, and 
can in no way be classed with those. In the case 
before us, as well as in others, the man is represented 
as acting, speaking, independent of the evil spirit, 
and the evil spirit as acting and speaking independent 
of the man. Such things as these cannot be con- 
founded with natural diseases. 



288 THE lord's miracles. 

Nor, again, can we confound these maladies with 
such modern diseases as delirium tremens, or hydro- 
phobia, or even with lunacy. These are natural dis- 
eases, and can all be accounted for on natural prin- 
ciples; and were Jesus present and exerted His 
power in behalf of such persons. He would heal them 
in the same way that He did those who were suffer- 
ing with the natural diseases of Palestine. 

This is no poison injected into the blood, like that 
of hydrophobia; nor is it a burning fever, disorder- 
ing the brain, like tliat produced by an excess of 
ardent spirits in delirium tremens. 

It appears to be rather more like a case of clair- 
voyance or mesmerism, in which the clairvoyant is 
not a man of powerful nervous temperament, con- 
trolling at will one of weak temperament, and 
entirely subjecting his will to his own, but Satan 
himself, or some of Ids chosen angels, in which the 
subject is at the control of tlie stronger power, led 
on and actuated at will, and yet having his lucid 
intervals, in which he realizes his sad condition, as 
in the case of this man, who came to Jesus and 
worshipped Him — ^^just what he would not have done 
if this legion had had full control over him at all times. 

Before going farther, I will notice here a dis- 
crepancy in our translation which ma}^ give us some 
light on this difficult subject. Our word devil^ from 
the Greek word diabolos, is Satan himself, and in the 
original is never applied to any other. In all these 
cases, I mean those similar to tlie one now mider dis- 
cussion, the Greek word is oat/y.wv, or om/io'^to?, from 
which is derived our word demo7i. This, again, is 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 289 

never applied to Satan. He is of an entirely distinct 
order from tliese. The words should never be con- 
founded, as they are in our translation. The Bible 
knows no devils any more than it knows a plurality 
of true Gods. There is one God and one devil; and 
as God has His angels, so the devil has his demons. 
If all the evil w^orks attributed to Satan, the persecu- 
tion of the saints, the tempting of believers, etc., 
were virtually the work of the devil, that would at 
once render him omnipresent — possessing one of the 
attributes of Deity. But such is not the case. He 
works by means, by instrumentalities wliich he has 
put into operation with the ultimate object of man's 
ruin; such as poisoning the fountains of nature, by 
which tliey yield thorns and thistles instead of joy 
and happiness, and seizing upon a multitude of im- 
pure spirits to carry out his will and fulfil his plans, 
as in tlie case now before us. We see this vei'ilied 
in the expressive Greek word datfxo'^t^ofj.syo? —literally 
endemonized. 

It is this principle of satanic instrumentality, 
whetlicr in nature or the huu:ian breast, that has led 
many who are not over scrupulous as to the divine 
authenticity of God's Word to suppose that there 'is 
no personal devil, but only a corrupt and vicious in- 
fluence, which may more properly be expressed in 
our language by spelling the word without a "d," 
evil. This is similar to the view of the Sweden- 
borgians, who teach (if I mistake not) that, as man 
is at the head of the creation, he is a combination of 
all the lower orders of creation, and consequently 
the nature of the serpent, as well as that of the lion 
13 



290 THE lord's miracles. 

and the lamb, together with that of all otlior animals, 
concentrate in him ; consequently, when the serpent 
tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, that there was 
no literal serpent present, but tliat it was her own 
serpent nature wliich rejisoned with her higher and 
more noble qualities; and as this nature was more 
astute and cunning than all these, she was induced to 
yield, and partake of tlie forbidden fruit. 

But this attempted solution of the question en- 
counters too manj' difficulties to be satisfactory. If 
such had been the case, Christ would never have con- 
versed with these unclean spirits as though they 
were personal beings. He would not converse in 
this way to a serpent nature. After the temptation, 
we are told that the devil left Him. Did this ser- 
pent nature come and go at will? I admit that 
there are passages in the sacred writings where this 
mode of interpretation is applicable; but then, these 
are exceptional cases, and all come under the general 
principles of Scripture usage, just as in the case re- 
corded in Mark i. 23, wliere the demoniac came £^ 
-'^zo!J.a7i a/.Oajieio, in an uHclcan spirit, just as those 
who have the Christie spirit dwelling in them are 
said to be in Christ, whereas the sequel proves that 
the unclean spirit dwelt in the man, and weiit out of 
him. In the book of Hevelation, Satan is spoken 
of as the "great dragon," the beast, and the false 
prophet (Kev. xii. 9); the first being his power in 
the pagan world, by which he seeks to destroy the 
Church; the second by his political dominion over 
her, by which he would crush her; and the third, 
his power in sowing dissension in tlie Church. 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 291 

These three great powers — pagan, political, and eccle- 
siastical — when resolved into their proper elements, 
are but great masses of living men, influenced more 
or less b}^ Satan, and out of which proceeds an evil 
influence called the "spirits of devils [demons]," 
somewhat different from the demons tliemselves, who 
are represented as dwelling in the demoniac. When 
the mission of the men comprising the latter two of 
these three great powers is ended, they are repre- 
sented as being cast into a lake burning with fire and 
brimstone, (Rev. xix. 19,) wliile Satan himself — the 
king over the locusts which ascended from the pit 
of the abyss, and who actuates these powers — is cast 
personally into the lake where the beast and the 
false prophets are. The Scriptures attribute per- 
sonality to Satan as much as they do to Christ. He 
is called a king, and a king can only be an individual, 
and not a power or influence. Satan has his sub- 
jects, and these are demons and wicked miCn. The 
former are spoken of as instruments, entering into and 
controlling the latter; while unrepentant men are 
spoken of as worshipping demons. (Rev. ix. 20 ; 1 
Cor. X. 20.) 

The terms applied to tliese evil spirits in the Scrip- 
tures are significant. '' Satan " and " devil '' appear be 
synonymous. The former means an enemy, an ac- 
cuser. Apolh^on and Abaddon mean the destroyer. 
Beelzebub is the "prince of blue flies," probably an 
epithet given in derision by the Jews, on account of 
the vast number of these insects which gathered 
around heathen altars and idols, to feast upon the 
ofl"al and filth allowed to accumulate about these 



292 THE lord's miracles. 

places, producing disease and death; while on the 
other hand, the Jews were extremely careful to burn 
up all filth, and destroy every thing contaminating, 
thus keeping their temple and altars perfectly pure 
and clean. The word "devil" is a compound word, 
consisting of (^'-a — through, and /5«/w — to cast, and 
means the one who pierces through, or wounds witli 
a dart. (Epli. vi. 16.) 

The term "demon," in its origin and pagan use, 
signifies the spirit of an illustrious dead man; and 
the word was applied to heathen gods, wlio were sup- 
posed to have been originally great men on eartli, 
and afterwards gods in heaven. Such were Mars, 
the god of war; Vulcan, god of fire, formerly an 
illustrious Roman blacksmith ; Yenus, the goddess of 
love; and Neptune, the god of the sea, formerly an 
illustrious Roman mariner; and so with all others 
who, wdiile on earth, were notorious for some pecu- 
liarity, had been transferred to heaven after death, 
where they became gods. The Athenians, in speak- 
ing of St. Paul's doctrines, use the word in this way, 
"He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange demons." 
(Acts xvii. 18.) 

According to the book of Henoch, the demons 
were the souls of the giants who corrupted them- 
selves with the daughters of men in antediluvian 
times, and who were permitted to wander about the 
earth; and the idea appears to have been quite pre- 
valent, that the demons which exerted such extraor- 
dinary influence and power in our Savior's time were 
the spirits of dead men. {Josephus, Bell. Jud., 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 293 

Book 7j Chap. 6, Sec. 3.) Tliis view I feel very 
much inclined to accept. 

But why not accept the almost universal doctrine, 
that Satan and his angels were created angels of pii- 
I'ity and liglit in heaven, and tliat they fell from 
tlieir lofty abode by sinning against God — filled with 
an extraordinary pride, they rebelled against His au- 
thority, and were cast down to hell ? I answer that 
I cannot, accept it, because it appears to me to be a 
niodern invention, and has no autliority in Scripture. 
It w^as not entertained by the early Church, and ap- 
pears to be based entirelj^ upon the interpretations 
of modern expositors. I know that there are pas- 
sages of Scripture given in proof, but I feel con- 
vinced that a careful examination of tliese passages 
will show that they yield no testimony in favor of 
such a claim. 

But l)efore entering upon this examination, let 
us consider for a moment the meaning and use of 
the word '"'■ angel.'^'' In the original Greek (for the 
word is transferred, and not translated), it simply 
means " a messenger^^ who carries news or valuable 
packages from one place to another. In the Scrip- 
tures tlie word has two meanings: celestial messengers 
— Christ and sinless spirits ; and terrestrial messengers 
— men who carry messages to their fellowmen. The 
angels of tlie seven churches, spoken of in Revela- 
tion, were men, and the word there might properly 
be translated, " the ministers or messengers to the 
«even churches." A similar use of tlie word occurs 
in Luke : "And when the angels of John were de- 
parted." (Luke vii. 24.) Glancing at the nineteenth 



294 THE lord's miracles. 

verse, we see that these angels were two of Jolin's 
disciples ; and in tlie twenty-seventh verse of the 
same chapter the word is applied to John himself, 
and translated in oiir v^ersion ^^ messenger.'''' 

A similar word occurs in the Old Testament, and 
is applied to those illustrious Jews whom God had 
chosen as His especial messengers, by delivering to 
them His word, to administer to His ancient people. 
" Thou shalt not revile the gods^ nor curse the ruler 
of thy people." (Ex. xxii. 28.) " God standeth in 
the congregation of the mighty ; He judgeth among 
i\\Q gods. * * * * I have said. If e are ^(96/^/ 
and all of you are children uf the Most High." (Ps. 
Ixxxii.) Christ, referring to these passages, gives 
us the undoubted meaning. They were men — mes- 
sengers to whom God had given His word. "Jesus 
answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said. 
Ye are gods? If He called them gods unto vvhom 
the word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be 
broken ; say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanc- 
tified and sent into the world. Thou blasphemest, 
because I said, I am the Son of God ?" (John x. 
34-30.) Stephen calls these gods angels : " Who 
have received the law by the disposition of angels, 
and have not kept it." (Acts vii. 53.) Paul also 
calls them a?igels : " For if the word spoken by 
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and 
disobedience received a just recompense of reward." 
(Heb. ii. 2.) Now, if these angels included all the 
shepherds of Israel, tlie priest, Levite, scribe, and 
Pharisee, the sun, moon and stars of the prophecies, 
those who had received the word to teach to others. 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 295 

but had not only failed to do so, but had neglected 
to keep it themselves, as well as those who liad been 
faithful in tlie discharge of their duties, tlien I can 
easil}^ understand how they might become "fallen 
angels, reserved under chains of darkness to the 
judgment of the great day ;" and over wliom Satan 
reigns supreme, and whom he controls at will. And 
there must have been many such in Judea the night 
that wise men came from Jerusalem inquiring where 
the new King was to be born. They had received 
the word, but were so far fallen that not even the 
priests in tlie temple could render an answer until 
they had examined tlie sacred records. 

We are now prepared to examine the first and 
most important passage of Scripture brought forward 
as proof that the devil and his angels are fallen celes- 
tial angels, tliat of 2 Peter, ii. 4. In the first 
chapter of this epistle, Peter is speaking of the way 
in which the prophecy came. They (the apostles) had 
been "eye witnesses'' of Christ Himself; but we 
have God's word, whicli came to us, not "by the 
will of man, but men spake from God, being moved 
by the Holy Ghost;" tlien, in the second chapter, he 
speaks of " false propliets and false teachers," who 
deny the Master that bought them, and immediately 
adds, "For if God spared not the angels (these false 
prophets) when they sinned." Tiiis gives us a bet- 
ter understanding of Hebrew ii. 3. If these false 
prophets are reserved in Tartarus in caverns of dark- 
ness unto the judgment day, "how shall we escape 
if we neglect so great salvation ? " If such was the 
fate of false teachers under the old dispensation, 



296 TWR TOT?r>' 



THE LORD S MIRACLES. 



what will be ours under the new if we follow their 
example ? Christ sajs that he that believeth not on 
the Son of God is condemned already ; and I under- 
stand that, at the hour of death, being part and par- 
cel of either the beast or false prophet, they will at 
once go to perdition. (Rev. xix. 20.) Paul says 
that "we shall judge angels." (1 Cor. vi. 3.) If 
this passage refers to celestial spirits, its meaning is 
an incomprehensible mystery to me ; but if it refers 
to angels under tlie old dispensation, who kept not 
their first estate, then it becomes perfectly trans- 
parent, and lean easily understand how the sanctified 
(not martyrs) shall sit on thrones with Christ throuo-h 
the thousand years of the Farousia, and in the end 
be found as participants with Christ in judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel, including these fallen angels. 
(Rev. XX.) I repeat, that I cannot understand how 
we can judge celestial spirits, of the extent and power 
of whose sins we can form no idea, especially as such 
spirits, if there arc any fallen, have no Savior, and 
consequently can have no judgment, being already 
condemned. A thousand years residence in the per- 
sonal presence {Parousia) of Christ, will enable man 
to judge by the law of Moses the deeds done in the 
flesh. ]^ut by what law can he judge celestial 
spirits ? Certainly not by the law of Moses, created 
and adapted to man while in the body. 

The second passage, "And the angels which kept 
not their first estate, but left their own habitation. 
He hath reserved in everlastinor chains under dark- 
ness unto the judgment of the great day," (Jude 6.) 
undoubtedly refers to the same order of beings, and 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 297 

is SO similar to the first that furtlier comment here is 
unnecessary. 

The tliird passage, "How art thou fallen from 
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art 
thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the 
nations" (Isa. xiv. 12), is a sad misquotation. The 
prophecy is about the king of Babylon: "Take up 
this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, 
How^ hath the oppressor ceased ! tlie golden city 
ceased !" (vs. 4.) The word Lucifer means a light 
hearer^ and was applied to the morning star — a very 
fit title for the king of Babylon — a false prophet, who 
had within his grasp abundant knowledge and power 
to instruct the nations, but instead of doing so, op- 
pressed them in order that he might gratify his own 
pride. Nothing is said about his falling out of 
heaven, but that he had said in his heart, "I will 
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above 
the stars of God." The stars of God were the true 
prophets of Israel. From this lofty position tlie 
king of Babylon was thrown down. Similar lan- 
guage was used in respect to Tyrus. (Ezek. xxviii. 
11-19.) I know that it is said that the king of 
Babylon was a type of Satan. Very well, but that 
does not destrov the analoo:y. If Nebuchadnezzar 
was cast down from a loft}^ position on earth, so was 
Satan — nothing more. Christ's remark to the 
seventy, on their return, is of a similar nature, "I 
beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." The 
theatre of his fall was Judea, and no more proves 
that he fell out of heaven than that the lightning 
falls out of it. 



298 THE lord's miracles. 

We now come to the last and most important of 
these passages, tliat recorded in the twelfth chapter 
of Revelation; and here all difficulty at once dis- 
appears, if we bnt remember the prophetic nature of 
tlie passage, and apply the proper key to its inter- 
pretation. Heaven is the sanctified Church on earth, 
overshadowing the Jewish church before Christ's 
resurrection. The earth is the visible kingdom of 
disciples. Tlie angels are the messengers of God's 
word. They cannot be celestial spirits, because they 
overcame the enemy by Christ's blood and the word 
of their testimony. Celestial angels have nothing to 
do wdth the blood of Christ. To overcome Satan 
by the word of tlieir testimony is the labor of earthly, 
and not celestial, angels. Had they been celestial 
and immortal spirits, it would never have been said 
of tliem tliat " they loved their lives unto the death." 
Earthly messengers lay down their lives for the (;ausc 
of Christ, but celestial spirits cannot do this. 

Again, is it possible that the first sin was commit- 
ted in heaven? Until this war took place, he had 
been accusing the brethren day and niglit, perhaps 
for ages. The angels had enjoyed no rest, and this, 
too, in the very presence of God. According to this 
view, heaven must have been a perfect hell, while 
tlie inhabitants of the earth were enjoying during this 
period as perfect a heaven. According to the re- 
cord elsewhere, Satan appeared to the first members 
of our race in Paradise, and continued to be their 
tempter and accuser from that on ; but according to 
this view he is suddenly cast to the earth, with a vast 
multitude of his companions, the earth having already 



HEALING THE DEMONIAO. 299 

been peopled for ages, and up to this time enjoying 
perfect tranquillity. The ])attle here was begun at 
the cross. Christ is its leader. Michael and his 
angels is synonymous to Christ and his ministers. 
The war began on the cross, and extends through all 
tlie ramifications of the human family. It is internal, 
and not external. When Satan loses control over a 
human soul, that soul becomes a sanctified believer. 
Satan may continue to persecute him, but he cannot 
destroy him. 

Thus we find that there is no evidence in Scripture 
that Satan was ever an anc^el of lisj-ht in heaven. 
This view, it must be admitted, destroys much poe- 
try; but as it is truth, and not poetry, we are in 
search of, we do not feel alarmed. And now the 
question arises, Where did Satan have his origin ? 
From whence did he come? This is a delicate sub- 
ject, and one wdiich I shall not attempt to answer. 
I can only throw out a few suggestions, which may 
lead us to further research, and in the end prove 
profitable; as I have good reason to suppose that the 
Bible contains much on this subject which we have 
not yet learned. I suggest, that he was created a 
pure and holy being in this lower world, and, like all 
the rest of the creation of God, he was pronounced 
" very good " at the beginning. He was created the 
ruler of this world. In the temptation the devil is 
represented as taking Jesus up into a high mountain 
(probably Caesar's throne), and showing Him "all 
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time"; 
and then he said to Him: "All this power w^ill I 
give Thee, and the glory of them; for that it is de- 



300 = THE LORD'S MIRACLES. 

livered unto me, and to wliomsocver I will I give it. 
If Thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be 
Tliine." (Luke iv. 5-7.) On this passage Rev. H. 
B. Pratt makes the followino; suorgestive remarks: 
"Tt will not do to say that this was altogether an 
impudent falsehood; for liad it been so, our Lord 
would never have suffered it to pass. Tiiere was 
doubtless a foundation in fact for that extraordinary 
claim, maintained so fearlessly of denial in that 
extraordinary Presence; but just wliat it was we 
can but remotely conjecture. Our Savior does not 
gainsay, but seems rather to admit, that there was 
some trutli in his claim. He seems to allow that 
all had once been delivered to him (in liis ^ first es- 
tate,' perhaps, as a prince over the hosts of God) ; 
but implies that the baseness of his proposal showed 
that whatever legal claim he once ma}' liave pos- 
sessed he had utterly forfeited, by his imj)ious en- 
deavor to wrest it from his Lord and Maker, his 
Lawgiver and his Judge." {H. B. Pratt^ Studies on 
the Second Advent.) 

Christ's own language appears to be decisive on 
this point: "Now is the judgment of this world; 
now sliall the prince of this world be cast out." 
(John xii. 31.) ''Hereafter 1 will not talk much 
with you; for the prince of tliis world cometli, and 
hath nothing in Me." (John xiv. 30.) Our Savior 
here does not intimate that Satan has assumed this 
position, or that he has stolen this title, but that it 
is truly and legitimately his own. The indications, 
then, are that Satan was ci'eated a prince of tliis 
world, pure and holj^, and with complete control 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 301 

over the world and all its elements, even from the 
beginning of the creation. This view, I think, will 
appear more evident if we now^ examine Ezekiel's 
prophecy against Tyros. (Ezek. chap, xxviii.) This 
prophecy appears to refer more directly to the high 
priest of the temple at Jerusalem — a high, strong 
rock in the midst of the seas (understanding the 
w^ord seas in its prophetic sense, of Gentile nations). 
He is a man, and not a god (vs. 2). He was full of 
wisdom and perfect in beauty, and had been in Eden, 
the garden of God. Every precious stone was his 
covering, — referring, no doubt, to the breastplate 
worn by the high priest. (Ex. xxviii. 15-21.) He 
w^as the anointed cherub, the second of the four 
''living creatures" of Rev. iv. 6. This 1 consider 
to be undoubted proof as to whom the prophecy 
refers. Tlie w^ord '' cherub" could never be applied 
to the uncircumcised king of any heathen nation. 
He had dwelt in Mount Zion, tlie holy mountain 
of God; had beheld the glory of the Shekinah, and 
had administered upon the holy altars. Born of the 
tribe of Levi, chosen from birth for a pure and holy 
service, he had dwelt from his creation in God's 
holy temple on earth. He was perfect in all his 
ways, until iniquity was found in him, and then he 
was cast down from this lofty position. He signed 
his own death-sentence w^hen he delivered the Lord 
Jesus over to Pontius Pilate to be crucified, and his 
final destruction became complete with the destruc- 
tion of the temple and temple-service. But I do 
not intend to say that Tyrus was a, type of the high 
priest, but the apostate priest himself. The word 



302 THE lord's miracles. 

Tjnis means a strong rock, a refuge, and as such was 
placed in Sion as a refuge for God's people, l)ut 
failing in the fulfilment of his mission, he sold tlie 
flock; and then tlie Lord says of them: "Wliere are 
their gods [angels ?J, their rock in whom they trusted, 
wdiicli did eat tlie fat of their sacrifices, and drank 
the wine of their drink offerings? '• (Deut. xxxii. 37, 
38.) All, then, that is said of Tyrns may more or 
less figuratively be said of Satan. He was created 
in this world for the especial purpose of being tlie 
prince and ruler — the great high priest of this 
world. Had he remained faithful to his Creator, he 
would liave had the w^hole race of Adam, unfallen 
and uncontaminated witli sin, for his subjects. His 
authority, it is true, would have been delegated au- 
thority, and subject to God; but it would have been 
true, pure, holy, and happy. But there appear to 
be evidences that his fall occurred in the early stages 
of creation, long before man was formed, or he had 
a subject to rule over. Created a prince of this 
world, he had full control over all the elements of 
nature, instilling into them the influence of his 
poison; consequently that which God made and pro- 
nounced "" very good," became, under the influence 
of Satan, foul and impure, producing thorns and this- 
tles and tormenting diseases. The very flrst intimation 
we have of Satan's existence was, "And the earth 
w^as without form and void, and darkness was upon 
the face of the deep." This was chaos, confusion. 
Can any one look upon this picture and not exclaim, 
"An enemy hath •done this"? Yet the life-giving 
Spirit of God continued to brood over this chaos, 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 303 

bringing forth life and light from confusion and 
darkness. 

When the time came for man's creation, we find 
tliat, although he was created of eartli's poisoned 
elements, he was not altogether placed in the world 
a subject of the prince of this world, but was hedged 
in by a paradise of God's own planting; and in order 
that Satan might reach him, he liad to leave his own 
domain and intrude himself into God's paradise; but 
it appears that even this was contaminated by his 
evil influence before man was placed in it. The 
tree of the "knowledge of good and evil" was there. 
Good came from God, but the evil from the enemy. 
This tree, then, was formed from the elements of 
Satan's world. The idea that Satan instilled his 
poison into tlie very elements as the world itself was 
being created, filling it with that which would pro- 
duce pain, suffering and death, leaving everywhere 
his testimony of universal death in every mountain 
and in every rock, from the shell of tlie most minute 
mollusk up to the giant skeletons of the megathereum 
and glyptodon, the mastodon and the dynothereum, 
poisoning' all the fountains of nature, so that they 
produce thorns, briers, thistles, venomous reptiles 
and insects, tormenting, tearing, teasing, annoying, 
not only the future race of man, but enemies to each 
other as well, appears to me to be far more consistent 
than the idea that Satan fell from the condition of a 
pure and holy angel into a world where there was 
nothing but universal joy and peace and happiness, 
transforming it into earth's present condition, and 
that, too, without any authority from Him who 



304 THE lord's miracles. 

created the world good at the first. That God 
should confer upon liim such authority after liis fall 
appears to me to be utterly inconsistent with His 
justice, love and mercy. That Satan was created a 
pure and holy being in this world, with full control 
over the elements, and that here lie created rebellion 
b}^ first rebelling himself against God's authorit}^, 
and then filling the earth with tlie elements of sorrow 
and deatli, and afterwards, when man was created, 
he succeeded in persuading a large portion of the 
race to follow his example, subjecting the remainder 
to the evil influences whicOi he had put in operation 
in nature, as well as inspiring his own ill-gotten sub- 
jects by their evil passions to engage also with him 
in subjecting them to tormenting persecutions, ap- 
pears to me to be perfectly consistent with the w^ord 
of God, as well as with the laws of nature, and avoids 
all the difficulties which arise from the view that 
'•the devil and his angels" were created in a world 
where sin can never enter. 

If the views which I have here presented are cor- 
rect, then the "demons" of the passage under con- 
sideration — the devil's angels — are the spirits of 
false prophets and teachers under the old dispensa- 
tion. Let us examine the record. Notice the resi- 
dence of this possessed of demons, "the tombs." 
Thev dwelt in "the resiion and shadow of death." 
Modern travellers tell us that there are many tombs 
cut out of the rocks on the hillsides in the country 
where this miracle was supposed to have taken place. 
These tombs, full of dead men's bones, were an un- 
clean place for a ceremonially pure Jew. The Jews 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 305 

were accustomed, as far as possible, to keep these 
tombs in good repair and well whitened, so that they 
could be seen from a distance, and avoided by going 
"aronnd them. They even considered that a person 
would be defiled walking over a tomb that had been 
Iiid for ages; and for this reason Jewish women 
going to the synagogue rode on oxen, in order that 
their feet might not touch the ground, if it was ne- 
cessary to pass over sucli places. No Jews, only 
Gentiles, would live in Tiberias — a city that Herod 
built — because it w^as built on tlie site of an old 
grave yard. {Giekie^s Life of Christ, Vol. I., page 
301.) If accidentally polluted by passing over a 
grave, they remained unclean seven days, and during 
this time could enter no house or svna£>;oojue. The 
tombs, then, beini^^ the residence of these unclean 
spirits, were significant of their impurity and un- 
cleanness. And then the entry of this leo'ion of de- 
mons into a lierd of unclean swine, which to tlie 
Jew was the most unclean of all animals, is in liar- 
mony with the residence chosen by these unclean 
spirits. 

Now look at the number — ^' a legion." This is 
supposed to be about four thousand. Luke tells us 
that there were about two thousand swine, and that 
would afford about two demons to each hog. But 
mind tlie small place in which they had dw^elt — four 
thousand of them in one heart. 

'^ I adjure Thee hy God that Thou torment me not^ 
Trench, commenting upon these words, says: "Here- 
in the true devilish spirit speaks out, which counts 
it a torment not to be suffered to torment others. If 



306 THE lord's miracles. 

it were a torment to these demons not to be able to 
retain this man among tlie unclean tombs, then what 
a torment it must be to them to know that the saints 
are safe in holiness and heaven ? But Matthew re- 
cords what appears to be a question to Jesus before 
this request is made, "Art Thou come to torment us 
before the timeV What time do thej refer to ^ Is 
this time the day of judgment? I think not. I 
think tliat it is that time when Christ should triumph 
over the enemy on the cross, and Satan should be 
expelled from the Jewisli Church, or kingdom of 
heaven, and this CJiurch should now become Chris- 
tian. If so, I can easily understand how these de- 
mons may be the spirits of the wicked dead who 
had been false prophets among the Jews, and who, 
from the hour of the death of their bodies up to 
this period, were permitted to roam about the earth 
(land of Judea), and find a residence wherever they 
could; but after tliis period were eitlier limited to 
tlie pagan world, or confined in dungeons of dark- 
ness unto the judgment of the great day. This, 
again, brings us back to the twelfth chai)ter of Eev- 
elation, which may be paraphrased tlius: "And there 
was war in the spiritual kingdom of heaven. Christ 
and His disciples fought against the dragon. And 
the dragon fought, and his angels — demons and 
wicked men. And the dragon was cast out, and his 
angels were cast out with him. Woe to those wlio 
dwell on the earth (the discipleship of the Church) 
and the sea (pagan world); for the devil is come 
down unto you." After this battle, it is the devil 
who is come down to the earth. IS^othin^ is said 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 307 

about his angels or these demons having conae with 
]iim. They are now confined in dungeons of dark- 
ness, while his other instrumentalities are all left 
him wherewith to torment those who have not as 
yet become members of the sanctified Church. 

Then another important point is the intimate re- 
lation which this miracle bears to tliat of the quel- 
ling of the tempest, immediately preceding it. If 
we suppose the ship to represent tlie Jewish Church, 
and the sea the pagan world, which had exerted its 
utmost power to ruin and destroy the Cliurch before 
our Savior came, we will again see the connecting 
link here. Satan, using Pharaoh as his instrument, 
had endeavored to destroy Israel's Savior in Egypt, 
bv destrovin^f the male children of tlie Hebrew^s. 
But the Savior was not to come at that time, and 
the prophet like unto Christ who did come, was 
miraculously preserved. He again used Herod as 
an instrumentality for the accomplishment of the 
same purpose, and 'again he was defeated, and the 
Messiah still lives. Another attempt was made by 
the great enemy, in the temptation, to gain Him by 
deceit and cunning, and this also had failed. ]^ow 
Satan finds Him asleep with His disciples on tlie sea 
of Galilee, and seizing those material elements at his 
command — the wind and the waves, typical of those 
more spiritual elements wliich he has used in later 
ages, and which he now uses for the ruin of Christ's 
Church — he hurled down upon Him from the moun- 
tains such a tempest as he supposed would engulf 
and destroy Him in tlie deep; but like all his other 
efforts, this also proved a failure ; for Jesus, although 



308 THE lord's miracles. 

He had iiot yet conquered and mastered the great 
enemy, was already Lord of the elements, and could 
control them at will, thus bringing peace and calm 
out of the storm, as He in the becrinnins: had brought 
new life out of cliaos and deatli. And now He meets 
with this legion of evil spirits. How natural to sup- 
pose that He would take revenge on tliem for what 
had occurred on the night before! We are not sur- 
prised, then, that they should exchiin), "Art Thou 
come to torment us before the time?" the time when 
Satan sliould be seen falling "like lightning from 
lieaven;" liis power broken, liis dominion destroyed, 
and all power in heaven and earth given to Christ. 
(Matt, xviii. 18.) For some time these demons and 
other powers of Satan's kingdom had been all in tur- 
moil, exerting an influence which they never did be- 
fore nor since; but their power was subject to Him 
who controls, not only the elements of earth, but 
the demons of hell, and brings calm and peace after 
the storm. 

Mark says that tlie demons " besought Him that 
He would not send them away out of the co^intry ;^^ 
that is, out of the kingdom of Israel, confining 
their power to the heathen world. Luke says, " They 
besought Him that He would not command them 
to go out into the deep ;^^ that is, into the abyss. 
The words sea and ahyss appear to be synonymous, 
and doubtless in prophetic language mean the heathen 
world, although they appear to have, and I think wc 
can say they do have, a more significant meaning 
still; that is, the condition of "those who sit in the 
region and shadow of death." During the Parou- 



HEALINQ THE DEMONIAC. 309 

sia, or Millenium, Satan, as a persecuting power, is 
limited to that region. (Kev. xx. 1-3.) It was from 
thence that he first came as a persecuting political 
power. (Rev. xvii. 8; xi. 7.) Satan is spoken of as 
being the angel of this abyss; and it appears to be 
Satan's own camping ground, as the Septuagint trans- 
lates "tlie deep" of Gen. i. 2 by tliis w^ord. Within 
this abj^ss there appears to be a ^/^. (E,ev. ix. 1, 2.) 
The idea at once suffS'ests itself to the mind that this 
pit is the grave in the heatlien world — origin of the 
dense, dark smoke of fear and superstition which 
covers the earth with worse than Egyptian darkness 
in regard to the future world and future condition 
of the race, resulting in ruining the world witli an 
immense army of spiritual locusts, demons, evil 
spirits and false gods. The word "pit" again sug- 
gests this idea, as it is used elsewhere to designate 
the grave. Out of the grave shall also come life. 
Wlien Christ sat by the side of Jacob's well, and 
conversed with the woman of Samaria, she said, 
"The pit is deep, and You have not wherewith to 
draw." Although the carnal Jacob may dig deep, 
yet out of liis grave Christ can d]*aw living water. 
This word abyss is also found in Rom. x. 7, "Who 
shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ 
up from tlie dead.)" Only the power of the living 
God could bring Christ up from the grave. 

When, therefore, the demons request of Christ 
that He would not command them to go out into the 
deep, I understand that they request of Him that 
they may still be permitted to roam this earth, and 
that they would not be confined to the pit of dark- 



310 THE lord's miracles. 

ness in the abyss, — ■just what befell them upon their 
entry into the unclean swine. 

King James' Version says, " The Lord hath made 
all tilings for Himself; yea, even the wicked for the 
day of evil." (Prov. xvi. 4.) One of my Spanish 
versions reads, " The loicked o)ie.'" That God should 
create evil, as evil, appeal's to me to be fully as in- 
consistent as to say that He created the devil as a 
devil. That God created him pure and holy, a 
prince of this world, and tliat he rebelled, and be- 
came the author of all the evil in the world, appears 
to be far more consistent with the Divine plan. Satan 
then seduced the sons of Adam, and these in turn 
became, after death, evil spirits or demons. But Dr. 
Hodge opposes the idea that these demons, so numer- 
ous and so rampant in our Savior's time, were the 
spirits of dead men. He says, " that the 'W.;//ov;«, who 
are represented as subject to Satan, are not the spirits 
of wdcked men who have departed this life, as some 
have maintained, is clear, (1), Because they are dis- 
tinguished from the elect angels; (2), From its being 
said that they kept not their lirst estate (Jude 6) ; 
(3), From the language of 2 Peter, ii. 4, where it is 
said God spared not the angels that sinned ; (4), 
From the application to tliem of the titles, princi- 
palities and powers, which are appropriate only to 
beings belonging to the order of angels.'' {Ilodge^ 
Vol. /, p. 644.) The answer to the first objection is 
very simple. That there are "elect angels" (1 Tim. 
V. 2J ,) no more proves that there are non-elect angelic 
spirits who have fallen, than that ''elect infants, 
dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 311 

Christ." Confession ()//'a^7^, cluipter 10, section 3, 
proves that there are ??(9;i-elect infants dying in in- 
fancy who are not regenerated and saved by Christ. 
llis second and third objections have already been 
refuted. In answer to the fourth, 1 would say, that 
tlie principalities and powers (Eph. vi. 11-13; Col. 
ii. 15,) referred to all the powers of darkness at pre- 
sent in operation in this world, and intimates nothing 
whatever in reojard to their orioin. I must have 
stronger proof than Dr. Hodge presents before I can 
be convinced that his view is correct. 

Matthew says that "there was, a good way off 
from them, a herd of swine feeding," and Luke adds, 
they were "on the mountains." We are not told 
the length of time that elapsed^ from their exit from 
the man to their entrance into the swine, but the im- 
pression is that it was but a moment. Nor are we 
told whether or not the air was the means of their 
conveyance. Satan is called the prince of the power 
of the air, (Eph. ii. 2,) probably because this is tlie 
instrument by which he conveys his instrumentalities, 
and not because the air is the residence of evil spirits, 
as is usually supposed. We notice that the air was 
the principal instrument chosen by Satan to destroy 
the Sleeper and His small band on the night before; 
and as the wind is the symbol of the Spirit, it also 
becomes a symbol of all similar instrumentality in 
teaching and propagating doctrines; an instrument 
which the enemy does not fail to use to his advant- 
age in the propagation of his false doctrines. 

The infidels have raised a great dust about the 
wanton destruction of so much private property as 



THE lord's miracles. 



was destroyed by the loss of two thousand head of 
swine by our Lord Jesus Christ. To this cavil I 
answer, that the Jew who would violate the laws of 
his country, and pollute it, in order to enrich himself 
by pampering to a foreign appetite, ought to be 
punished far worse than by the loss of his propert3^ 
If the owners of these hogs were not Jews, they had 
no business there, and should have been banished as 
knaves and traitors. But I deny that it was the 
Lord Jesus who destroyed these pork-loving Jews' 
property. It was the infidels' own friends, the de- 
mons themselves, wlio destroyed the two thousand 
hogs. Let them give an account of them. 

Kow, I will only add, by way of conclusion, that 
there are three prayets offered to Jesus in the latter 
part of this narrative. (1), The demons " besought," 
or prayed, to Him, that they might be perujitted to 
enter into the herd of swine. This prayer was 
granted, and, like Pharoah and his host, they plunged 
madly into the sea or abyss, henceforth to Jose all 
control over tlie citizens of the kingdom of God. 
(2), The Gadarenes besought (prayed to Him) to 
retire from their coasts. This prayer also was 
granted. A few herd of swine was of far more 
value to them than God's eternal Kinoj and kino^dom. 
It would never do for them lo be cleansed from 
their tilthy traffic, and sit, like the healed man, 
clothed in purity and holiness, at the feet of Jesus. 
(3), The prayer of the healed man to be with Jesus 
was refused. He must return to Ids lilthy country- 
men, and preach the gospel to them. CJn'ist would 
not take him home to the bosom of His kin£:dom 



HEALING THE DEMONIAC. 313 

now; but lie must labor towards the salvation of 
others, until the Master, in His own good time, calls 
liim home. 

Reader, yon, by your life, are offering one of 
tliese three prayers to-day. Which is it? Do you 
pray, witli the demons, to be permitted to become 
still more filthy ? Or with the Gadarenes, that Christ 
may depart from you for ever? Or do you pray, 
with Christ's chosen one, that you ma}^ be permitted 
to dwell with Him. in purity and holiness ? 

We have in this miracle a bold outline of the sad 
condition of the world. A few masterly touches 
heve, in sharp relief, present to our minds the sad 
condition of our humanity. The man filled with a 
legion of demons is a type of one who has felt the 
power and polluting influence of sin to the uttermost, 
and has learned that he has no power within himself 
to break awa}- from it; consequently can see before 
him no ray of hope, but only the consciousness of 
final and irretrievable ruin. For all such there is no 
Savior but Christ. The chains of the law and the 
fetters of the prophetic dispensation may bind him 
for a time; but they only gall and lacerate, until 
they are all broken, and the poor, lost sinner is im- 
pelled by an irresistible force to return to his filthy 
dwelling-place amid the rotting carcases of the 
tomb. Oh ! how sad ! And yet his countrymen are 
all in the same terrible condition. The only differ- 
ence is that they do not know it, and he does. 
Their sins are to them what the swine were to the 
people of Gadara. They were their pets, their pro- 
perty, their riches, their wealth, that by which they 
U 



314 THE lord's miracles. 

gained their living, and possil)ly, like the Gentile 
governors of the land, their food — at least they ex- 
changed them for what was their food. The demons 
were within the man ; the swine, it is true, were out- 
side of his neighbors, and yet the care and attention 
bestowed upon them proves that they had found an 
abiding-place in their hearts. His eyes had been 
opened, and, like Adam and Eve, he found himself 
lost. Their eyes would have been opened, also, if 
they had, like him, felt the galling, binding chains 
and fetters of Moses and the prophets. A sad ex- 
ample of this poor man is to be found to-day in the 
drunkard, who is the miserable, abject slave of his 
cups. His neighbors who keep the swine are the 
rumsellers, wlio carry on an abominable business, 
which sends tiieir neighbors, sons and daughters 
down to the abyss. Throughout public and private 
life, wherever we go, we find this same sad state of 
affairs. The poor demoniac, who from childhood 
has been drilled in deception, falsehood, and dis- 
honesty, in order to gain a livelihood, or (^arry on a 
respectable, profitable, and what tlie world would 
call a legitimate business, and who feels the terrible 
condemnation and dreads the retribution already 
about to fall upon him for breaking God's pure and 
holy law, suffers in terrible agony until he comes to 
Jesus and is healed; while his neighbor, on the other 
hand, practises all tliese things, grows rich, lives in 
ease and luxury, and dies, and is laid away in the 
dwelling-place of demons, the filthy tombs, the 
awful abyss in which his riches, and his honor and 
glory have perished for ever; — or have these, like 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 315 

the swine impelled by unclean spirits, passed over 
there, to become tormenting demons, to rend and 
tear him throughout eternity? Jesus can save liim; 
but his inordinate love of his pets, his houses and 
lands, his soul and body destroying business, his un- 
cleanness and unbounded selfishness, induce liim to 
fall at the feet of the Savior whom the God of the 
universe has provided for fallen man, and pray that 
He would depart out of his coasts — leave him in his 
ruin for ever; and now, passing beyond, he will find 
that what was to him a lierd of swine here, is trans- 
formed into a legion of tormenting demons. 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, AND THE 
ISSUE OF iiLOOD STOPPED. 

"And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, 
Jairus byname ; and when he saw Him, he fell at His feet, and 
besought Him greatly, saying. My little daughter lieth at the 
point of death : I pray Thee, come and lay Thy hands on her, 
that she may be healed ; and she shall live And Jesus went 
with him ; and much people followed Him, and thronged Him. 
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 
and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had 
spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather 
grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press 
behind, and touched His garment. For she said. If I may 
touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the 
fountain of her blood was dried up ; and she felt in her body 
that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately 
knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned 
Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My dothes? 
And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude 
thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched me ? And He 



316 THE lord's miracles. 

looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But 
the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in 
her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the 
truth. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made 
thee whole ; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. While 
He yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's 
house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead ; why troublest 
thou the Master any further ? As soon as Jesus heard the word 
that was spoken, He saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be 
not afraid, only believe. And He suffered no man to follow 
Him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 
And He cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and 
seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. And 
when He was come in, He saith unto them, Why make ye this 
ado, and weep? the damSel is not dead, but sleepeth. And 
they laughed Him to scorn. But when He had put them al\ 
out, He taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and 
them that were with Him, and entereth in where the damsel 
was lying. And He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto 
her, Talitha cumi ; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, (I say 
unto thee,) arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and 
walked ; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they 
were astonished with a great astonishment. And He charged 
them straitly that no man should know it ; and He commanded 
that something should be given her to eat." — Mark v. 22-43. 

We have two miracles recorded in this passage, of 
such intimate relationship that it is impossible to 
separate them without destroying the lesson which 
they were intended to teach. If we apply the rules 
of interpretation which I have used thus far, the 
lesson becomes very easy, and at the same time 
quite instructive. 

'•'.And^ hehold^ there came one of the riders of the 
synagogue, Jairus hy name^ By a ruler of the 
synagogue, I understand a person who occupied a 
position in the Jewish church quite similar to tliat 
of a gospel minister under the Christian dispensation. 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 317 

The synagogue was the Jewish cliiirch, and has vir- 
tually come down to us. The temple and temple 
service, being more directly typical of Christ and 
His work, has all passed away — fulfilled in Him. 
But why is this ruler's name so carefully stated 
here? Doubtless to farther designate the position 
he occupied. The word " Jairus" means a dispenser 
of light. How very appropriate! Was it human 
ingenuity which gave him tliis name, or is it part 
of a divine record ? 

''And he besought llhn greatly, saying, My little 
daughter lieth at the point of deaths The original 
is still more emphatic, and the expression "my little 
daughter" might with propriety be translated ''my 
dear little daughter^'' But who is this daughter in 
the antitype, over whose salvation the Christian 
minister is so solicitous? We notice that in the 
record it was not the wife and mother who was sick 
and dying, but the daugliter, the former being appa- 
rently healtliy and well. The daugliter, then, can 
be no other than the baptized child of the church — 
she who had sat from infancy under tlie light of the 
synagogue, and who had now arrived at a point 
when she could know good from evil, being twelve 
years of age. But the solicitous care of tlie father 
and mother had failed to preserve their darling child 
from sickness and death. Human instrumentality 
cannot save from deatli; they must bring her to 
Jesus. In the prophetic language of the Old Testa- 
ment this daughter is spoken of as " tlie daughter of 
Sion," and "the daughter of Jerusalem." (Jer. xlix. 
4; Micah iv. 8-10; Zeph. iii. 14-20; Zech.ix.9.) If 



818 THE lord's mieacles. 

we examine these prophecies we will find a perfect 
analogy running through them corresponding with 
this miracle, as well as with events recorded in the 
parable of the prodigal son, and proves that there is 
no power in the old dispensation that can save. 
Christ, and Christ alone, is the only Savior from 
sin. Lnke states that she was an only daughter; 
but this does not prove that all baptized children 
will be raised from sin by Christ. Mark states that 
lie was one of the rulers of the synagogue, with 
which the original of Matthew nearly agrees, indi- 
cating that there were more than one, and that there 
may have been several rulers of this same synagogue; 
but that it was the dispenser of light whose strong 
faith in Jesus was the instrumentalitv which in the 
end resulted in a cure. The other rulers of the 
synagogue may have had daughters also, who had 
not profited by the instructions imparted by their 
fathers, and not brought to Christ by a father's faith, 
may have, and according to the Old Testament pro- 
phecies, reall}^ did perisli in their sins. 

A discrepancy between Matthew and the other 
evangelists, in King James' Version, may be noticed 
here: "My daughter is even now dead." The word 
"even" may be translated possibly. She was alive 
when he left home, but is possibly now dead. This 
would harmonize Matthew with the statements of 
Mark and Luke, tliat she was "at the point of death" 
when he left his house. 

"'Come [and lay Thy hands on her^ that she may 
he healed; a)id she shall livey From the peculiar 
construction of this lanojuaije, as well as the intimate 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 319 

relationship existing between this miracle and tlie 
one connected with it, I think I see an indication 
tJiat the disease with which this daugliter suffered 
was one tliat, according to tlie Levitical law, would 
exclude from the synagogue service, and if so, lier 
soul would be considered by him as in danger of 
eternal death, and tJiat if Clirist will restore her to 
bodily health, he will not only free her- from an un- 
clean disease, but give her life of soul also. 

^^A?id Jesus went with him ; and 7nuch people 
followed Him, and thronged Himy This conipany 
tliat followed- Him, and pressed around Him, was 
doubtless a crowd who followed out of mere curiosity, 
to see some wonderful sign, just as a crowd to-day 
would follow a circus, in order to see a clown or 
dancing bear. Hundreds' of people go to church 
to-day for the same purpose; tliat is, they go to hear 
a good preacher, or to be entertained by a good 
sei-mon. They would (if it were as respectable) just 
as soon go to see a bear figlit, or anything else, that 
would entertain them for an hour or two. Oh, how 
few, how very few, go to church for the sole purpose 
of learning God's will and putting it into practice ! 

If you want to learn a very curious lesson in 
human nature, and one that you will not be likely 
to forget very soon, place yourself at some conve- 
nient stKeet-corner of a country town when a circus 
company is coming in, and study (not the circus, 
but) the countenances of the spectators. Look at 
that open picture of human nature, and you will be 
able to read every countenance: here, the leering 
buffoon; there, gaping ignorance; yonder, wondering 



320 THE lord's miracles. 

curiosity; there, the drunkard, and so on: all bent 
on seeing some strange and wonderful thing. 

Just such a crowd pressed around the burning 
martjr-fires of Huss and Jerome, of Cranmer, Rid- 
ley, and Latimer, and around the grave of Wickliffe, 
and saw his bones removed by sacrilegious hands 
and burned. Such a crowd gatliered around the 
dying Polycarp, and saw him torn limb from limb 
by wild beasts; and not long after the performance 
of these miracles, such an one gathered around our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and saw Him dragged by brutal 
soldiers to a mock trial and an infamous execution. 

But just as in those crowds that gathered around 
the burning martyrs tiiere may have been some who 
in tiie end were of that " remnant that shall be 
saved," so there was in this crowd that pressed 
around Jesiis on this occasion one at least wlio was 
not drawn there out of mere idle curiosity. Tiiis 
person was a woman who had suffered long and se- 
verely a disease which had dragged her down almost 
to the gates of death. Her disease was "an issue 
of blood" — a disease which, according to the Leviti- 
cal law, rendered her ceremonially impure, and at 
once declaring her outside of the synagogue. She 
was not a daughter of the synagogue. She doubt- 
less had in early youth attended the synagogue ser- 
vice — was healthy, strong, and ceremonially pure; 
but now for twelve years she had been excluded 
from the kingdom. T!ie peculiar exactness with 
wdiicli tlie evangelists state the age of the ruler's 
daughter, and the lengtli of time with which this 
woman had suffered this disease, to be twelve years, 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 321 

leads me to suppose that tliey were both now in 
comparatively the same condition. If so, then, in 
the antitype, the baptized child of the church, who 
has from tender infancy enjoyed all the privileges of 
superior religions training, and that person who has 
received but few of these religious privileges, and 
has failed to profit by those he has received, and 
later becomes a wandering prodigal, must both be 
brought to the same humble position as suppliants 
at the feet of Jesus before they can be saved. 

'^And had suffered many tJmigs of many jphijsici- 
ans, and had sjpeid all that she had^ and was nothing 
heitered, hut rather grew xcorseP In many ancient 
manuscripts the passage in Luke viii. 43 — " had 
spent all her living upon physicians, etc. " — is omit- 
ted, but found in more modern manuscripts. This 
has induced some modern critics, who endeavor to 
maintain the false and absurd theory that Luke com- 
piled his gospel from Matthew and Mark, to sup- 
pose that, Luke being a physician, and extremely 
modest, did not include these words, but that some 
modern copyist introduced them from Mark. This 
woman had learned from sad experience that only 
the true Phj^sician can heal. These doctors were 
not all quacks, but tiiey were all ceremonial, legal, 
and moral, and could do her no good. They could 
eat up her living, relieve her of her money, and 
cause her much suffering, but they could not effect a 
cure. Moses and Elias were true physicians, and 
their prescriptions were necessary, but their medi- 
cines could only touch the ceremonial, legal, and 
moral. Spirit, if diseased, can alone be cured by a 



322 THE lord's miracle. 

spiritual physician. False priests and false prophets 
were abundant in those days, as quacks are to-day ; 
yet she appears to have knowledge enough to avoid 
all these, and doubtless applied to physicians well 
skilled in their profession. I find nothing in this 
passHge that woukl detract in the least fi-ora the 
character and profession of the honorable modern 
ph3'sician. 1 esteem the medical profession as rank- 
ing next to that of the Christian ministry. 

In order that we may be saved, we must know by 
sad experience that we are suffering a terrible mal- 
ady ; our life-blood is flowing aw^ay, leaving our 
})ody every day weaker, and one dav nearer the 
grave ; and that no mortal physician can cure this 
malady, or stop this flow^ of life. It is only when 
we have learned this that we are prepared to come 
to the great Piiysician, by a living faith that will 
save us. This is what this woman did, and there are 
a few to-day, of all the pretended followers of Christ, 
wdio know His power to save. Others follow be- 
cause the crowd goes that way. Some tliink that it 
is a respectable crowd ; some follow to sell tiieir 
merchandise to the multitude ; others because they 
expect to be fed with the loaves and fishes;, but it is 
recorded of this poor woman, that she came because 
she desired to be healed. 

•' Whe7i she heard of Jesiis^ came in the j)7'ess he- 
hind, and- touched His garment, for she said, If I 
may touch hut His clothes, I shall he whole. "^^ Mat- 
thew and Luke say, that she touched " the hen) " and 
"border" of His garment. On this passage Godet 
makes the following remarks: "The word y.parr-edip^ ^ 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 323 

which we translate bj the hem (of the garment), de- 
notes one of the four tassels or tufts of scarlet woollen 
cord attached to the four corners of the outer robe, 
wliicli were intended to remind the Israelites of their 
law. Their name was zitzit^ (Num. xv. 38.) As 
this robe, which was ot a rectangular form, was worn 
like a woman's shawl, two of the corners, being al- 
lowed to hang down close together on the back, we 
see the force of the expression ^ came hehind^ Had 
it been, as is ordinarily understood, the lower hem 
of the g'^irment w^hich she attempted to touch, she 
could not have succeeded, on account of the crowd 
winch surrounded Jesus." On this point Alford 
says: "The -/.paa-sdir^ was the fringe or tassel which 
the Jews were commanded to wear on each corner 
of their outer garment, as a sign that they were to 
be holy unto God. The article, as in Matthew xiv, 
36, designates the particular tassel wiiich was 
touched." As the word used in Numbers xv. 38, is 
fringes^ I am inclined to think that the fringe of one 
side, including the tassel of one corner, was what 
was intended. The mystical number, four, at once 
designates the four-fold character of God's kingdom, 
(Rev. iv. 6-7,) as well as the four-fold character of 
Christ — of King, Priest, Prophet, and Quick;ming 
Spirit. This woman had already tried the first 
three, and had found that they could not cure her. 
These were the physicians on whom she had wasted 
her substance. She had lost confidence in the king 
of Israel. For several hundred years there had been 
no king, and the nation had been ruled by foreign 
powers. She had tried the priesthood, but had found 



324: THE lord's MIRACLES. 

that all the blood shed upon Jewisli altars could 
never atone for sin. She had appealed to the pro- 
phets, but all they could do was to point her to the 
Great Physician, and now she comes to Him. She 
had already tried three fringes of this garment in 
vain. Now, if she could only touch the fourth, slie 
would be healed. She comes, and she touches that 
fourtli hem, or fringe, which is peculiarly typical of 
Christ in the Comforter, His reign in the kingdom 
of Spirit, and lo! she is healed. 

'•'And straic/htway the fountain of her Mood was 
dried uj) ; and she felt in her body that she was 
healed of that plague.''' The cure was instantaneous. 
In the very act of touching His garment slie was 
healed. And yet tlie process whicli brought her to 
the feet of Jesus had occupied twelve years. 

''And i/esns, immediately Jaiowing in Himself that 
virtue had gone out of Ilim^ turned Him about in 
the press, and said, Who touched My clothes f^ On 
another occasion we are told that "The whole multi- 
tude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue out 
of Him and liealed them all." Now, we cannot for 
a moment suppose that this virtue went out of Him 
without His own consent; and yet He tells us that 
He did nothing of Himself, but the Father, working 
through Him, did all of these miracles. 

He who, by the eye of the Spirit, could see into 
man's heart, and know when the multitude in thought 
murmured against Him, who knew Zacchens before 
He came to Jericho, and Nathanael when under the 
fio- tree, knew the object of this woman's faith, and 
granted her request of His own free will. 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED. ETC. 325 

Some weak minds have supposed that Christ did 
not know who touched Him, as it would, to them, 
have been a piece of deception on the part of Jesus 
to ask His disciples for knowledge which He already 
possessed, and that He would not thus deceive them. 
Godet sa^'s, "Anything like feigning ignorance ill 
comports with the candor of His character." I 
cannot understand it in this way, as we have so many 
similar examples in the Scriptures; that, for instance, 
in the example of Elisha and Gehazi, "Whence 
comest thou, Gehazi?" In tliis case we are fully 
assured that Elisha knew all the particulars of 
Gehazi's transaction before he asked the question. 
Also, when God called to Adam, "Where art thou, 
Adam ?" The all-wise God certainly knew where 
Adam was. Again, the case of a father inquiring 
of liis children, who liad committed some fault, in 
order to have them state the trutli, "Who did this?" 
There is no infraction of tlie truth here. But we 
have an nndoubted example of this from Christ 
Himself, on another occasion : " And He said unto 
them. What things? And they said unto Him, Con- 
cerning Jesus of Nazaretli, whicii was a prophet 
miglity in deed and word before God and all the 
people." The question was asked of this woman to 
draw out what followed. 

^'A?id His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the 
multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who 
touched Mef The disciples appear to be almost, 
if not altogether, offended that He should ask such 
a question. They little dreamed that He was the 
discerner of the thoughts of all hearts. Luke says 



326 THE lord's miracles. 

that tliey all denied. She may have denied at first. 
Wliether we are to inchide tlie woman in the word 
"all," or only the multitude, is hard to decide. I 
am rather inclined to think, from a careful examina- 
tion of the text, that tliis woman and the disciples 
are not to be included in the word all here. For 
Luke states that all denied, and that Peter and they 
that were with him made a declaration just tlie re- 
verse of this — that many had touched Him ; thus 
indicating that it was not a very truth-loving multi- 
tude. The word all, then, means all the mvltitude, 
exclusive of the woman and the disciples. 

" The woman came and fell down he fore Ilim, and 
told Him all tlie truths Christ demanded of this 
woman just what He demands of every saved sinner 
— tluit the moment lie knows that his sins have been 
forgiven, and tliat life eternal, stolen from him by 
treachery in Eden by the great enemy of God and 
man, has now been restored to him, that he should 
come and make an open confession, and not to hide 
away in a convent and enjoy the remainder of life 
in selfish indulgence, but come and glorify his 
Savior by confessing His power to save before the 
whole multitude. 

''''And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath 
made thee wholeT The word "daughter" is a term 
of endearment, and from the lips of Christ is a decla- 
ration that she is now a member of His new kinc;- 

CD 

dom, and virtually belongs to the new dispensation. 
"Thy faith hath made thee whole," is in the original 
"Thy faith hath saved thee," indicating that she is 
not only made whole from the polluting disease with 



JAIRTJS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 327 

which slie had suffered, but that lier sins are forgiven 
her, thus opening up for her the hope of a glorious 
resurrection." 

Now liere let us stop and learn a lesson. It is 
not all those who follow after Christ tliat will be 
saved. Hundreds in tlmt noisy, wortliless crowd 
never saw^ heaven, and hundreds to-day in the church, 
as worthless as these, will never pass through the 
gates of pearl. 

But we must not forget here that the faith of this 
woman was not yet fully developed into the faith of 
the new^ covenant. It was still under the sliadow of 
the old. She supposed that sonie magic influence 
would go out from His person that would cause a 
cure. She displays here a childish ignorance of the 
wdiole gospel plan of salvation as revealed to us to- 
day. She does not appear to know that He who 
created man's body must know just where the disease 
is, and that His healing touch must be applied to 
the wounded part before there can be any effectual 
cure. None but God can cure. All tlirough the 
Old Testament, God's servants never pretended to 
perform miracles. On the contrary, they ever denied 
any power as inherent in themselves. The most 
they ever pretended to was to acknowledge them- 
selves as God's instruments, while they ever attri- 
buted the power of the miracle alone to Him who 
has all powder in heaven and in earth. If Christ, as 
she probably supposed, was a prophet or messenger 
sent from God, He must know lier trouble ere he 
could heal her. If she could be healed merely by 
touching the garment of tlie Great Prophet, then 



328 THE lord's miracles. 

He must be God, and she could not possibly touch 
Him without His knowledge. 

And yet Christ had mercy on her. Coming thus 
to Him, in her weak, cliildish ignorance, putting 
faith in Him in a manner that to me, with my 
knowledge of the gospel, would be gross idolatry, 
our Savior deigns to grant the earnest desire of her 
heart. But we must remember that she lived under 
a dispensation of types and shadows, and that now 
the true worshippers worship tiie Father in spirit 
and in truth. 

It would appear that this age of shadows did not 
entirely disappear with the resurrection of our Lord, 
but was continued down into the times of the apos- 
tles; for we read of napkins and handkerchiefs being 
carried from the apostles to the sick, and even sick 
persons were laid at the wayside in order that the 
shadow of tlie apostles might fall upon them and 
heal them. 

This again proves to us that a knowledge of the 
whole gospel plan of salvation is not necessary for 
the salvation of the soul. If it were, no man on 
earth could be saved. The most pious and tlie most 
learned theologian in tlie world cannot comprehend 
the whole truth, while in mortal flesh. We cannot 
know Christ unto perfection in this life. ATe may, 
indeed, ''feel after Him," as Paul told tlie Athe- 
nians; or like the woman on whom this miracle was 
performed, we may at least touch the hem of his 
garment, and if we do that with a living faith that 
it is He who has come to redeem Israel, we shall be 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 329 

saved, however imperfect and immature that faith 
may be. 

^^Go in peaceP A blessing is now pronounced 
upon her: "Go in peace." We are all, in a spiritual 
sense, in the condition of this woman. The stream 
of life is rapidly flow^ing away. Every day we are 
one day nearer to the grave, and we can alone be 
healed by coming to Christ. We cannot, perhaps, 
be able to lay hold on His divinity, but we can at 
least touch His humanity. By clothing Himself 
with human flesh. He has made Himself accessible 
to us. We touch Him by the arm of faith : " He 
that believeth on Me shall never die." 

And now the evangelist tells us that messengers 
coming from the house of the ruler of the syna- 
gogue inform him that his daughter is dead. Christ, 
either overhearing this message or not heeding it, 
said to him, "Be not afraid, only believe." Here 
faith comes in again ; but oh ! how different ! In 
the woman's case, it was her own faith that saved 
her; but in this case, it was the faith of the parent 
that restored the dead daughter to life. 

''^And He suffered no man to follow Him., save 
Peter, and James, and.' Joh.n the hrotJier of James.'''' 
The three favored disciples were permitted to follow 
Him into the death-chamber, and catch a glimpse of 
the wonderful mystery of the resurrection. These 
three were the representatives of the ministry of the 
gospel church, corresponding with the twenty-four 
elders of Rev. iv. 4. They are the representatives 
of three kingdoms: the law, the gospel, and the 
Spirit — the carnal, the moral, and the spiritual. 



330 THE lord's miracles. 

Peter, the Toch^ built upon the foundation, Christ, 
or in otlier words, the sub-structure of the edifice; 
James, tlie sup'plantei\ or main edifice; and John, 
the embellisliments, or life and beauty and grace 
within, that is, the grace of God. Peter, the repre- 
sentative of the legal, and James, whose name means 
a supplanter, is the representative of the moral or 
evangelical — the gospel su|)planting or taking the 
place of the law. John does not supplant James, 
but these two go hand in hand, the gospel and 
spiritual kingdoms being intimately united to each 
other; consequently the evangelist is very careful to 
tell us that John is the brother of James. Peter is 
also the representative of the ceremonial, and James 
of tlie intellectual. From their presence with Christ 
in the transfiguration, we learn that these three fa- 
vored disciples are representatives of tlie last three 
of the mystic number seven, and wherever this num- 
ber occurs we must expect to find something inti- 
matelj' related to tlie peculiar characteristics of these 
three disciples; as, for example, the twenty-four el- 
ders of Kevclation in connection with the four living 
creatures, the opening of the last three seals, the 
sounding of the last three trumpets, and pouring out 
of the last three vials. In the counterfeit, or Satan's 
kingdom, we may also "expect to trace a distorted 
analogy, where false prophets become the repre- 
sentatives of the '' world, X\\Q flesh, and the devils 
(These words I quote from man's Bible, consequently 
we are not surprised to find them transposed. God's 
word says, '' Earthly, sensual, devilish." — James iii. 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED, ETC. 331 

15.) "Judgment, mercy, and faith" are inscribed 
on the tliree departments of God's kingdom. 

In the future we hope to be able to trace an 
analogy, drawn from the characteristics of tliese 
disciples, through the last three of the seven parables 
recorded in Matthew xiii., as well as a distorted 
counterfeit in the last three of the seven horns of 
the great beast of Revelation. 

" The damsel is not dead,, hut sleepetUr Christ 
uses these words in anticipation of the resurrection. 
Her body was dead, but her soul w^as not dead, as 
they had supposed. She died under the old dispen- 
sation; and all who die under the two forms of that 
dispensation sleep unto the judgment day. Had she 
been a reprobate, she would have been dead sure 
enough, being condemned already in this life. When 
the w^oman cured of tlie bloodv issue, and now made 
a daughter of Christ, dies, lier body dies, but her 
soul passes at once into the par ousia, or presence of 
Christ. She does not sleep. Christ speaks not of 
the condition of the bod}^ but of tlie condition of 
the soul. If the world misunderstood Him, that was 
no fault of His. 

'' Jife taketh the father and mother of the damsel, 
and them that vjere with Ilimy The father and 
mother were types of the future church. The 
mother the membership, and the father the ministry, 
of which the three disciples were the representatives. 

" Talitha ciiini ; which is, heing interpreted, Dam- 
sel, {I say unto thee^) arise^ "Talitlia" was a word 
of endearment, sometliing similar to ''my child." 



332 THE lord's miracles. 

We noti(tc here the difference between the word 
with which Christ addresses this cliild, ov servant, of 
the old dispensation, wliose salvation depends npon 
a faith passing through carnal mediators, and the 
word daughter, with which He addresses the woman 
wliose sins are forgiven on her own personal faith in 
Clirist Himself, she liaving lost all faith in these 
carnal mediators. 

^'' And He charged them straitly that no man should 
know it; and commanded that something should he 
given her to eat.^^ See tlie bold contrast in tlie com- 
mand given here to that given to tlie sanctified be- 
liever of Gadara, from whom tlie demons had been 
expelled. He was commanded to return to his 
countrymen, and show them what great things God 
had done for him ; but this girl was to remain at home, 
and not publish abroad the history of her healing. 
But why are the two commands, to keep the matter 
a secret and give her something to eat, combined 
bv the evani)'elist in one sentence? Here we have 
the key which unlocks the mystery. She requires 
further nourishment before she can be of service to 
her mother. She requires to grow in knowledge 
and ii^race for a lonoj time before she can ojo out into 
the world and tell others how she has been bi'ought 
to Christ and sanctified b}" Him. The newly sancti- 
fied souls on the day of Pentecost were in a similar 
condition; hence it is recorded of them that "they 
continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and 
fellowship." (Acts ii. 42, Revised Version.) I think 
perhaps there was also another object in view, and 



THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC. 333 

that was, to guard and sbitald her as much as possible 
from the scoffs and sneers of a wicked world. The 
man of Gadara, and the woman healed of the blood v 
issue, had strength to resist all these, but she could 
not, for she was as yet but a cliild. But Matthew 
tells us that "The fame hereof went abroad into all 
that land." What the parents would not publish 
the world did. Let a sinner be converted, and the 
world is ready to publish the news, with many ad- 
ditions and comments, to suit the enemy, who feels 
that he has lost a member from his kingdom. 



THE HEALma OF THE PARALYTIC. 

And again He entered into Capernaum after some days ; and it 
■was noised that He was in the house. And straightway many 
were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to 
receive them, no, not so much as about the door : and He 
preached the word unto them. And they come unto Him, 
bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And 
when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they 
uncovered the roof where He was : and when they had broken 
it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 
When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, 
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the 
scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth 
this man thus speak blasphemies? who can- forgive sins but 
God only ? And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His 
spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto 
them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts ? Whether is 
it easier to say to the sick of the palsy. Thy sins be forgiven 
thee ; or to say. Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk ? But 
that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to 
forgive sins, (He saith to the sick of the palsy.) I say unto thee. 
Arise, and take up thy bed, and go tby way into thine house? 



33 [ THE lord's mikacles. 

And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth 
before them all ; insomuch that they were all amazed, and 
glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion." — Mabk 
ii. 1-12. 

In a lioiise in Capernaum sits Jesns, the Divine 
Teacher. A rnnltitucle lias gatliered in that house, 
ostensibly to listen to Him, hut I'ather to give their 
own doctrines and opinions a hearing. They have 
filled up the room, and crowded around the door, 
until no one can find entrance. At this juncture, 
four men come, bearing one sick of the palsy; but, 
being unable to gain entrance, they ascend to the 
roof, and break up the roof, and let him down into 
the room wdiere the Great Physician is seated. 

Many religious teachers, ignorant of Eastern cus- 
toms, have tried to explain this letting down through 
the roof, so that it would appear reasonable to the 
minds of people who are only accustomed to shingle 
roofs, with sharp combs, like the roofs of our com- 
mon houses in the United States. Sonie suppose 
that they first went up upon a hill back of the house, 
and from that passed over on to the roof. Others, 
objecting to the breaking up of the roof, have 
imagined that they let him down into the court, or 
through some stairway passing up through the roof. 

Now, I am familiar with the construction of these 
Eastern houses, and can almost imngine that I see 
these four men with the paralytic, going through the 
whole process described here by the evangelist. The 
house is built of a series of rooms, one story high, 
surrounding a court. From this court there extends 
a stone stairway to the roof, which is made, not of 



THE HEALING O^ THE PARALYTIC. 335 

old, half-round Dutch tiles, but of large, square bricks, 
made for the purpose, each one being about twelve 
or fourteen inclies square, and about an incli and a 
quarter thick. Upon this roof the family, perhaps 
accompanied by one or two friends, sit in the morn- 
ing and cool of the evening, and engage in their 
morning and evening devotions. To prevent acci- 
dents, there is a wall or breastwork around the 
outer edge of the roof, to keep people from falling 
oif ; and inside this wall, on the lower side, the roof 
being slightly inclined, there is a gutter, which 
collects all the rain-water falling upon it and carries 
it to the great cistern in the centre of the court. 

On finding the way obstructed, the bearers of the 
sick man pass around to ,the back entrance, enter 
the court through a hall or passageway from the 
garden, only again to find the way obstructed, for 
Jesus is not in the court, but in one of the rooms. 
Seeing the stairway vacant, they ascend to the roof 
with their burden, and find themselves directly over 
the great Master's head. They hear His voice be- 
neath, but cannot find a way to His presence. 
Nothing daunted, they are determined to force an 
entrance. A chisel is at once applied to one of the 
square bricks, which is soon loosened from its bed 
of cement and carefully laid to one side. Another, 
and then another, are removed in the same way, until 
a large space is opened up. But beneath this there 
is a second layer of bricks. This also must be re- 
moved. This may be done carefull}^ so as to pro- 
duce little or no inconvenience to the audience 
beneath, as the cement between the bricks is very 



336 THE lord's miracles. 

thin, and would mostly adhere to the bricks until 
beaten off with a trowel. Beneath tin's second layer 
of bricks they find a layer of latJis, or strips of wood, 
about three feet long, and rived out or split from 
the tree, all the work being of the most primitive 
order; consequently these strips would be quite 
different from such work done at a steam saw-mill 
in our country at the present day. As nails were 
scarce, being entirely hammered out by liand, and 
used only where it was absolutely necessary, these 
strips were tied fast to the joists beneatli with thongs 
or strips of green ox-hide, which shrink in drying, 
and hold these hiths down as fast and solid as any 
nails would. These thongs are easily cut with a 
sharp knife, and the latlis removed. A few small 
pieces of dry cement fall upon the audience beneath, 
and arouse their attention — perhaps amuse tliem — 
but do not frighten them in the least. TJie whole 
could be done in less than fifteen minutes, and 
almost as quickly laid down again, by calling in the 
assistance of a mason, with* a trowel and a small 
quantity of fresh cement. 

" W/ie?i Jesus saw their faiths Christ does not 
notice the faith of the sick man, but the faith of the 
four persons who had brought him into His presence. 
It was the faith which impelled these persons to 
take such extraordinary means to bring the sick man 
before Him, so confident were they tiiat He would 
heal him. 

'''Son, thy sins he forgiven thee''' The word son 
here is improper. This is a human translation. The 
Greek word rexvov means a child or servant, and not 



THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC. 



33T 



a son. This man was a representative of a sinner 
under the old dispsnsation. True, Christ, in the 
very same sentence, pronounces tlie pardon of his 
sins; but we must not confound this case with the 
woman healed of the bloody issue, to whom He says, 
•^'Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole." The 
record gives us no evidence that this man possessed 
any faith of liis own. The faith of those who brought 
him there is spoken of, but notliing is said about his 
faith. Palsy and leprosy were, by the Jews, so 
identified with sin that they could not be separated 
from it in the Jewish mind ; consequently, to be 
cured of eitlier was to have one's sins forgiven. 

Leprosy was a type, or rather symbol, of sin, in 
its corroding, corrupting influence, eating away the 
flesh — ulcerating, destroying, and decaying. Palsy, 
again, was another symbol of sin, in its deadening, 
benumbing tendency, leaving the poor sufferer often 
unconscious of his sad estate — for palsy, in a majority 
of cases, affects the mind as well as the body— and 
always in a condition in which he cannot help him- 
self. These two conditions we have seen fully ex- 
pressed in the miracle of the man of Gadara. He 
was like one suffering with leprosy, fully conscious 
of his sad estate; every nerve on fire; his sins, like 
a legion of demons, tormenting him day and night, 
until they become so incorporated with his own 
being that he feels that they are part of himself, 
two natures dwelling in one body, the carnal and 
the demon nature, and so incorporated that he in- 
voluntarily exclaims ''we," "I," "us," using the 
singular or plural as these natures gain the ascend- 
15 ' 



338 THE lord's MIRACLES; 

ancy. He dwells in a charnel-house, and can get no 
rest, and he cries out, in all the agony of a lost sonl, 
"I delight in the laW of God after the inward man; 
but I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind^ and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 
O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?" (Eom. vii. '22-25.) 
On the other hand, his countrymen, like tlie man 
suffering with palsy, are pei'fectly unconscious that 
their occupation is a monstrous crime of rebellion 
against the God of the land, and they profit and 
grow fat on their unlawful merchandise, looking 
upon their sins as tlie men of Gadara looked upon 
their flocks of swine, as only so many innocents, 
feeding upon the distant, mountain-side. Such per- 
sons must be awakened and aroused to a sense of 
their lost condition, before they can be made sons 
of God and of Christ. To this sad condition the 
man from whom the demons had been expelled, and 
the woman healed of the bloody issue, had been 
awakened lono; before thev came to Jesus. Conse- 
quently Jesus addresses this man as lie would a 
servant, by the very appropriate term, "child." 

''''But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, 
and reasoning in their hearts, l^'^^y doth this man 
thus speak blasphemies f Who can forgive sins but 
God onlyf'' Had He not been God, He would 
most certainly have been guilt}' of blasphemy ; but He 
immediately proved to them that He was more than • 
man, by revealing to them a positive proof, which 
they could' not deny, in the fact that He possessed 



THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC. 339 

a knowledge of what was passing in tlieir own 
breasts. 

'^Biit that ye may 'know that the Son of man hath 
power on earth to forgive si?is, {He saith to the sick 
of the palsy,) 1 say unto thee, Arise, take up thyhed^ 
and go thy ivay into thine house. And immediately 
he arose, took up the led, and went forth before them 
allP Here He proves His divinit^^ If Clirist liad 
not been God, He would have not only been guilty 
of blasphemy in pretending to forgive this man's 
sins, but also of gross deception. He wlio conld 
forgive sins mnst be divine. God alone, against 
whom sin is committed, can forgive sin. But that 
tliis man's sins were forgiven was not made per- 
ceptible to human eyes. On the contrary, the cure 
of palsy was perceptible. Here was a testimony 
they could not gainsay. This was visible, tangible 
evidence, which they could not den}^ 

None but God can give health and strength to a 
paralyzed body, and that He did so was an undoubted 
evidence of His divinity. Before this proof was 
given, they might have said that He was a very 
cunning impostor, pretending to forgive sins; some- 
thing in the spiritual world whicli they did not be- 
lieve He had or could perform, and yet which no 
one could prove to be false; for who could prove 
that tliis man's sins were not forgiven ? But here is 
a manifest, visible proof, which no man could deny. 

'' Whether is it easier to say^^ — hero i)i'esents a 
difdculty. 2h say one thing is just as easy as to say 
another. I understand the word "to say," here, to 
mean, to claim, authority, or claim the power. Whicli 



34:0 THE LOKD's MIRACLES. 

is easiest, to claim the power to forgive sins, or to 
claim the power to lieal a paralytic? They would 
answer, It is easier to claim the power to forgive 
sins. To illustrate: I may claim the ability to speak 
the Spanish language, if I knew that no one in my 
company understood that language; but if tliere 
were twenty men in my presence wlio understood 
Spanish, I could not make tliat claim, without fear 
of being detected, unless I really possessed the 
ability. 

^' /So?i of man hath power on earth:'* Not in 
heaven alone, but upon earth. I understand by tlie 
term here, "Son of man," that Jehovah who ap- 
peared as man to the patriarchs, and who now ap- 
peared clothed in human flesli, the Son of Mary. 
The Son of man, wlio came down from lieaven, 
brouglit this power with Him. Are we to under- 
stand that it was tlie Son of man who appeared in 
tlie theophanies of the Old Testament, and was only 
revealed to Ilis disciples visibly as the Son of God 
in tlie transfiguration and ascension ? 

'■''And he immediately arose.''"' The pretensions of 
Jesus are now fully confirmed. ''''And they xoere all 
amazed and glorified GodP We are not told what 
effect this miracle had upon the Pharisees and doc- 
tors of the law. They probably liardened their 
hearts like Pharaoh, for they afterwards crucified 
Him. But the multitude was amazed, and glorified 
God. There is a passage in Matthew's record of 
this miracle (Matt. ix. 8,) which caused me some 
difficulty at one period of my life. In studying the 
^Romish controversy, I found that the Romanists 



THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC. 341 

claim the words of Mattliew — "They marvelled and 
glorified God, wlio had given such power uiito men^^ 
— as a proof tliat their priests have the power to 
forgive sins. No one can claim tliat this refers alone 
to Christ, as the word is plural, "??2d?i," and not 
"?/2(2??.'' Nor is the explanation, that this is the 
language of an ignorant multitude, satisfactory. It 
is the language of the inspired evangelist, and no 
criticism can change it. But the difficulty at once 
vanishes, if we turn to Christ's last prayer, and 
read, "I have given unto them the words which 
Thou gavest Me, and they liave received them." 
The word is the power that brings sinners to Christ, 
and He fors^ives them. " Ye are clean throno-h the 
word which I have spoken to you." It is the word 
wliich washes away sin, and that word was in the 
beginnino^ with God. The utter is^norance of the 
word of God by the Romish priesthood, renders them 
the last men in the world capable of forgiving sins. 
The power or authority delegated to the ministry of 
the Church of Christ, is a thorough knowledge of 
God's word, and this the Romish priests most cer- 
tainly have not. 

Now, in order to nnderstand the lesson to be 
learned by this miracle, we must Urst learn the pri- 
mary object in view in its performance. This I be- 
lieve to have been, to a certain extent, an effort on 
the part of Christ to prove His divinity to His dis- 
ciples. They well understood that palsy was a 
symbol of the moral death produced by sin, and that 
whoever could heal this must be divine. 

Let us, tlien, first examine the case of the patient. 



342 THE lord's miracles. 

Palsy is a disease in wliich the sufferer becomes un- 
conscious of feeling. One limb only, or a portion 
of the body, may be affected, while the rest remains 
perfectly sound. Or it may extend to the whole 
body, including the brain as well, in which state the 
mind is probably more or less unconscious. Where 
the limbs only are affected, the man is perfectly con- 
scious, but unable to move or help himself. He 
cannot feed himself, and if left alone must starve and 
perish. He has no sense of pain ; prick him with a 
pin, or burn him with a hot iron, and he knows no- 
thin'o^ about it. This is the condition of the fijreat 
mass of sinners in this world. They liave no con- 
sciousness of the deadening power of sin. And yet 
I am told by those who have suffered with palsy, that 
althougli there may be no outward sense of feeling, 
yet within, in what w^ould appear to be the very mar- 
row of the bones, there is often a most excruciating- 
pain. This corresponds witli the case of the men 
who were engaged in an illegitimate business in 
Gadara when they saw Christ. Tliey were filled 
with fear and trembling at the fearful prospect of 
future retribution, and besought Christ to depart from 
tliem. The sinner may be perfectly unconscious of 
the weight of sin, but he fears lest Christ may open 
his eyes, and reveal to him its terrible guilt and cor- 
ruption. This man could never come to Christ 
himself, but must be brought by others. He is un- 
able to move Jiand or foot, much less to start off in 
his own strength in search of the great Physician ; 
but God has provided the means in the gospel min- 
istrv. 



THE HEALING OF THE PAKALYTIC. 343 

Four men find this paralytic. There are four 
evangelists, and we call them Mattliew, Marii:, Luke, 
and John. They arc also the king, priest, propliet, 
and quickening spirit of the old dispensation. We 
call them by other names to-day, such as ministers, 
pastors, preachers, etc. They occupy the pulpit, 
and till a prominent place in the Sabbath schooL 
Tiiese cannot cure the sick man, and make no pre- 
tensions to sucli a claim. If they did, they would 
be impostors. All they can do is to bring the sick 
man to where the cure is. But when they arrive at 
the place where the Divine word is to be found, 
there they encounter a great multitude, who have 
stopped up every entrance. Satan is there with all 
sorts of tramps. Pharisees and doctors of the law 
abound and fill up every door and window, until the 
Divine word is perfectly obscured, and they cannot 
gain entrance. Every window, nook, cranny and 
closet is full. There is absolutely no entrance. Ro- 
man Catholics, Infidels, Millerites, Mormons, Uni- 
versalists, Quakers, Swedenborgians, Dunkards, 
Shakers, Seventh Day Baptists, Campbellites — a list 
of names a yard long would be required to designate 
the multitude who have filled the hall, the door, and 
the street in front, every one pretending that he is 
right, and all others of that vast multitude are wrong; 
and thus contending with each other, they have 
raised such a babble of confusion that the four evan- 
gelists with their burden can gain no admittance, 
and pass by unheeded, unless it may be that some 
over zealous doctor stops them and strives to con- 
vince the paralytic that in order to get well he must 



344 THE lord's miracles. 

join his chnrch. Bnt there is no obstruction great 
enough to deter the evangelists, or keep tliem from 
bearing tlieir patient into the presence of tlie Sacred 
Word. The power to heal is there, and they mean 
to have it, and have it they will, even if tliey have 
to dig through a wall, or down through a brick roof. 
And so, wending their way around through the 
kitclicn door into the (rourt, and up the stairs to the 
roof, they find the Word completely covered up by 
glosses, commentaries and explanations of all kinds; 
but nothing daunted, with bar or spade, they dig 
down, tlirow the large bricks of error to one side, pry 
up the latli, and let down the patient into the very pre- 
sence of the pnre, unadulterated, living Word itself. 
And now, covered witli perspiration, tired and weary, 
they seat themselves on the parapet, to rest and await 
t])e result; and as they gaze upon the tumultuous 
throng in the street, lo and behold, they see the 
crowd open, and the paralytic walk out with his bed 
strapped upon his back. 

Here now we have evidence of the responsibility 
of tlic Ciiristian ministry. The sinner, in the con- 
dition of this paralytic, has no faith adequate to the 
exertion necessary to carry liim into the presence of 
Jesus. It was the faith of the evano^elists which 
carried him there. This is confirmed by James, 
when he says, " Is any sick among yon ? call for the 
elders of the cliurch, and let them pray over him. 
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and tlie 
Lord shall raise him up; and if he liave committed 
sins, they shall be forgiven him." 

It must not, however, on the other hand, be in- 



A LEPER CURED. 345 

ferred that this man was healed witliout any desire 
on his own part. His compliance with the desires 
of the evangelists sliow that he had a desire to be 
healed ; but it was not such a desire as tliat wliich 
possessed the demoniac, who rushed into Christ's 
presence while He was officiating in tlie synagogue 
at Capernaum, a place from which he had been ex- 
cluded, his presence polluting it. (Mark i. 24.) 
This man's faith was imperfect, and was shared by 
four human mediators. 



A LEPER CUEED. 

"And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling 
down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thon wilt, Thou canst 
make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth 
His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will ; be 
thou clean. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the 
leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And He 
straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away ; and saith 
unto him. See thou say nothing to any man : but go thy way, 
shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those 
things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 
But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze 
abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly 
enter into the city, but was without in desert places ; and they 
came to Him from every quarter." — Mabk i. 40—15. 

The healing of tlie leper follows next in order 
after the curing of the man sick with palsy, 
showing the intimate relationship which- the two 
miracles bear to each other, and to which I have al- 
ready referred ; palsy being a symbol of the dead- 



346 THE lord's miracles. 

ening, benumbing effects of sin, while lepros}", on 
the other hand, is a symbol of its corrupting, cor- 
roding, polluting, horrifying influence upon its sub- 
jects. 

Leprosy was a corroding cancer, usually com- 
mencing with a small pimple or blister, and gradu- 
ally spreading over the whole bod}^ until the entire 
system was affected by it ; or in exceptional cases 
spreading immediately over the entire body, as in 
the example of Miriam, the sister of Moses, and in 
that of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha. Leprosy was 
supposed by the Jews to be the result of Jsome grie- 
vous sin, such as was committed by Miriam and 
Gehazi. The Jewish rabbis say that when leprosy 
appeared in a house, that it was a warning to the 
person who dwelt therein that he was in eminent 
danger, and that he must repent and change his 
course of life at once. If he persisted in his course 
of wickedness, it next appeared in his clotliing, and 
finally in his body. 

This terrible malad}' was looked upon as a living 
death, corrupting, corroding, and polluting all the 
fountains of life, rendering existence a terrible bur- 
den ; a living fire in the blood, tormentmg, wasting, 
destroying, until the poor sufierer, reduced to a mere 
remnant of humanity, drops into the grave, and ac- 
cording to Jewish custom must be buried alone in 
the desert. Its cori'oding effect, tlie fiesh dropping 
away in pieces from the bones, the joints decaying 
until the. fingers and hands drop off, and the arms 
and legs fall from the body, are fearfully described 
by Aaron, when he pleads with the Lord for his sis- 



A LEPER CURED. , 347 

ter Miriam, " Let her not be as one dead, of whom 
the flesh is half consumed." 

Again, leprosy was considered a direct infliction 
of God, and could be cured by God alone. Pliysi- 
cians nev^er pretended to liave any powxr over this 
disease, consequently the Jews were compelled to 
acknowdedge all permanent cures of leprosy as gen- 
uine miracles, coming from God Himself. They 
might say tliat Christ cast out devils by the prince 
of devils, but they could not say that He cured lep- 
rosy by the power of the devil. 

The Mosaic law was very strict in regard to the 
disease of leprosy. The leper must rend his gar- 
ments, cover his lip, and go with the head bare, 
crying, '' Unclean, unclean," so that no one miglit 
come near liim. (Lev. xiii. 45, 46.) Everytliing 
connected with leprosy was placed by the Mosaic law 
on a level witli the person who had come in contact 
with a dead body. He was excluded from societ3\ 
The covered lip, the bare head, the torn garment, 
the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet used in 
the ceremony of his puriflcation after he had been 
healed, and before he would be permitted to enter 
the synagogue or mingle in society, were all symbols 
of death. The leper cast out of the camp while 
they journeyed in the desert, and out of the city 
while tliey resided in Canaan, indicated that he was 
dead to his family and people, and dead to all society, 
unless, perchance, he should find another unfortu- 
nate like himself, wdth whom lie could share liis 
solitude and his misery. Often several lepers banded 
together, living in the same hut, and partaking of 



348 THE lord's miracles. 

food, left at some convenient pLice for them by 
relatives and friends, and which they divided with 
each other. 

Nor was this all. The leper was looked npon as cut 
off from God. He could take no exterior part in the 
religion of his nation. He was considered as entirely 
separated from Israel — dead to the synagogue and 
temple service, and in a symbolical sense, cut off 
from God Himself, for "God is not the God of the 
dead, but the God of the living." It was in refer- 
ence to such a state as this that the ps^dmist ex- 
claims, " Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean ;'' 
and it was to such a state as this, when all hope was 
gone, and the time of probation had expired, and 
prayer had lost its ethcacy, that the seer of apoca- 
Ivptic vision refers, when he says, " For without are 
dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and mur- 
derers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and 
maketh a lie." But of the New Jerusalem, whose 
inhabitants have been cleansed from the leprosy of 
sin, he says: ''And there shall in no wise enter into 
it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever work- 
eth abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which 
are written in the Lamb's book of life." Oh! what 
a most appropriate emblem this burning, corroding, 
corrupting disease is of the lake that burnetii W'ith 
fire and brimstone, which is the second death. 

And here we have a wonderful mystery. The 
continual testimony of Christ during His mission 
was, that the lepers were cleansed, — as much as to say 
that the dead are restored to life. In fact, these 
miracles were on a par with those where dead bodies 



A LEPER CURED. 34:9 

were raised again to life from the dead ; and yet the 
Jews conld not receive this testimony as sufficient, 
but they mast prove Hiip by putting Him to death. 
They supposed that if He were Divine that He 
could not be put to death. Such a thing, to their 
minds, was utterly impossible, unless He were what 
they supposed Him to be — an impostor. What! 
Put a Son of God to death. No! Never!! He 
claims to be the Son of God. This will prove 
whether He is or not. Try Him. Crucify Him. 
They never dreamed that He could lay down His 
life and take it again, although He had told them 
publicly that He would do so. 

'^A'nd there came a leper to Hbn^ heseeching IlhnP 
Tliis leper appears to liave come suddenly to Christ 
and His disciples. He here violated the Levitical 
law in not giving warning of liis approach; but as 
another evangelist says that lie "worshipped Him," 
I think that there can be no doubt but this leper 
recognized the divinity of Christ, and consequently 
felt that he had violated no law of God in thus 
breaking through the ceremonial in order to ap- 
proacli the spiritual. 

^^ And Jesas^ moved vnth com.jpassion^ put forth 
His hand and touched hiinP Had Jesus been a 
mere man — a Jew — He could not have touched him 
without Himself being defiled. The priests, who 
were types of Christ, were not only permitted, but 
commanded to come in contact with the leper, and 
pronounce him clean or unclean, according to the 
state of the case; but even these must pass through 
a ceremonial purification before they would feel at 



350 THE lord's miracles. 

liberty to officiate in the temple service. But Christ 
could put His holy hands upon the unclean and re- 
ceive no dcHlemcnt. To the pure all things are pure. 
^o leprosy could contaminate a pure Savior. The 
Great Physician here shows His kingly authority 
over the disease. The demons are subject to Him, 
and so are all diseases. He has power to cure them 
all, and can be infected by none, no, not even that 
most universal disease, sin. 

^^ Go thy way^ show thyself to the priest J'^ Christ 
here commands him to comply with the requirements 
of the Levitical huv. He is still living under the 
Mosaic dispensation, and consequently is boiipd to 
fultil the law. He must go to the Levitical 'priest, 
and show himself to him, be pronounced clean, go 
throngh the usual ceremony of purification, accord- 
ing to the cure of lepros}', and then offer the gifts 
and sacrifices required by tlie Levitical law. 

Christ strictly charged this man that he should 
tell no one; but go straight to the priest. Many 
reasons have been given why this charge was made, 
some supposing that it was to avoid the jealousy of 
the priests, who, if they knew that he had been 
cured by Christ, might, in their malice and blind 
rage, pronounce him to be still unclean. If this 
had been the true reason, this man would most pro- 
bably have understood it, and not have published it 
abroad, as he did, unless he had been very foolish 
indeed. In fact, none but a fool would have acted 
so, under such circumstances. I think that the true 
reason, although somewhat obscure, is given to us 
in the relation. He published it abroad, " insomuch 



A LEPER CURED. 351 

that Jesns could no more openly enter into the city, 
but was without in desert places." What Jesus 
wislied to avoid was that gaping crowd of curiosity 
seekers, who were drawn together merely to gratify 
a morbid desire to see something new and wonder- 
ful ; who would run up one street in great haste to 
see the Messiah heal a leper, and down the next 
street in just as mucli liaste to see a dog-light. To- 
day, they would cry out at the top of their voice, 
"Hosannah to the Son of David!" and to-morrow, 
"Crucify Him! crucify Him!" Our Lord wishes 
to avoid this crowd, and consequently cliargcs this 
man to say nothing about the cure; but, under the 
circumstances, it was a very difficult matter for him 
to keep silent. A soul redeemed from death cannot 
remain silent. He must tell what God has done for 
him. I liave often tlious^ht that if I had lived in 
those times in Spain when the Spanish inquisition 
ruled, and men and women were tied by scores in 
large furnaces and burned to death, that I should 
have been very careful to say nothing about my 
religion; but when men liave been saved from the 
lepi'osy of sin, they care but little what men can do 
to the body, and they are compelled to publish to 
the world what the Lord has done for them. 

Tlie difficulty, then, was not so much in the cured 
leper publishing the news of his cure, but in the 
obstructions which tlie worldly crowd, full of noise 
and curiosity, would throw in the way, and thus 
hinder His work as a teacher, when He required a 
quiet audience, who came to be instructed, and not 



352 THE lord's miracles. 

amused ; consequently he is now compelled to remain 
without in desert places. 

The result, in the end, however, was favorable. 
The noisy crowd, however much impelled by curi- 
osity, would not fro outside of the cit}^ walls to hear 
a Divine Teacher. Curiosit}^ alone would never 
take them out into the desert. Those who songht 
Jesus through a liigher and more sublime motive 
than mere curiosity, will go to Him in the desert. 
Yes, and if need be, will follow Him to the dungeon 
and to the stake, in order to find Him. They care 
not what price they pay for the pearl of great 
price. 

Christ cured this leper by laying His hands upon 
him. Yes, He who knew no sin laid hold on our 
fallen nature, all defiled and corroded with sin as it 
was by the fall, and He healed it. "As in Adam 
all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." 

Reader, do you feel to-day that you are suffering 
with the terrible leprosy of sin, and that soon yo.u 
must share a leper's grave in the desert outside of 
the New Jerusalem, unless you are healed of this 
terrible malady? If so, then let mo present to your 
notice the Great Phj^sician, who is mighty to save. 
Come to Him, not out of mere curiosity to see a 
wonder-working prophet, but come that 3"0U may l)e 
saved from your sins. Let Him put His hands upon 
you, filling your veins with His own life-giving 
blood. Let Him breathe upon that dead soul, and 
vou will feel your whole beins; thrill with ecstatic 
joy and life eternal, 



THE centurion's SERVANT. 353 



THE CENTURION'S SERVANT. 

"Now when He had ended all His sayings in the audience of 
the people, He entered into Capernaum. And a certain centu- 
rion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to 
die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him the elders 
of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his 
servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him 
instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom He should do 
this : for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. 
Then Jesus went with them. x\nd when He was now not far 
from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, sayiug unto 
Him, Lord, trouble not Thyself ; for I am not worthy that Thou 
shouldest enter under my roof : wherefore neither thought I 
myself worthy to come unto Thee : but say in a word, and my 
servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under autho- 
rity, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he 
goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant. 
Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, He 
marvelled at him, and turned Him about, and said unto the 
people that followed Him, I say unto you, I have not found so 
great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, return- 
ing' to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick." 
— Lttke vii. 1-10. 

"Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not 
in Israel. And I say unto you. That many shall come from the 
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven : but the children of the king- 
dom shall be cast out into outer darkness : there shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth. " — Matt. viii. 10-12. 

The account of this miracle given by Matthew is 
somewhat different from that given by Lnke. The 
account given by Lnke has usually been supposed 
by commentators to be tlie correct one, wliile Mat- 
thew speaks of the centurion as doing in person 
what in reality was done by proxy. Luke, however, 
speaks of him as first sending the elders, and then 



354 THE lord's miracles. 

his friends, and I see no difficulty in supposing that 
he might have thought best to liave gone in person 
after Iiavins^ sent there, thus srivinoj both evansrelists 
a literal translation : Matthew recording one part of 
the transaction, while Luke I'ecords another part. 

This centurion, as his title indicates (captain of a 
cetUinn, or linndred soldiers), was an officer in tlie 
Roman arnjy. I find nothing in the record to indi- 
cate whether the servant was a Jew or Gentile. If 
he were a Gentile, he would be permanentlj^ outside 
of the kingdom of Israel; and if he were a Jew, he 
would be temporarily in the same condition, that is, 
impure, while dwelling in a Gentile house. But 
Christ came to tlie "lost sheep of the house of Is- 
rael;" and this servant, if he were a Jew, would be 
of that especial class to which Christ was sent in 
person. 

Tliis centurion — like Cornelius, the first Gentile 
convert to Christianity, and spoken of in the Acts, 
occupying tlie same office in the Homan army, for 
they were both centurions — was probably one of the 
many Gentiles of that time who, having made them- 
selves familiar with Moses and the prophets, were 
looking for Him to whom the Gentiles should come, 
as the One who should cure all the infirmities to 
which our human nature is subject, and which He 
will eventually do; not in this present kingdom of 
grace, but in the kingdom of glory, which is but an 
outgrowth of the former. 

Trench, in his work on the miracles, claims this 
man as a proselyte, and some, at least, if not many 
commentators claim Cornelius as a proselyte also; 



THE centurion's SERVANT. 355 

but I Unci nothing in the record to lead me to think 
that they were. In fact, I feel fully convinced that 
they were not. (1), I do not think that an officer in 
the Koman army would have been allowed to retain 
his position if he had forsaken by public ceremony 
the religion of the Roman empire. Even to-day no 
man who does not belong to tlie religion of the State 
can hold even the lowest office under the State in 
Peru and tlie Argentine Republic, and it is but a 
short time since a law was passed in Brazil allowing 
persons to hold office in the government who did 
not support the Roman Catholic Church. (2), All 
tlie circumstances indicate tliat these persons were 
full-blooded Gentiles, and not proselytes. (3j, Had 
this centurion been a proselyte, it would have stood 
upon the record, instead of that which is recorded, 
"he hath built us a synagogue,'* as this would have 
been of more importance to them. (4), Cornelius, 
at least, used Gentile food, otherwise Peter would 
not have hesitated in s^oino; with his raesseno'ers at 
once, without the necessity of a vision from heaven, 
and it is probable that this centurion did the same, 
as he would be compelled to participate in the festi- 
vals of his countrymen. 

We notice, however, Gentile as he was, many 
favorable traits in this man's character — his earnest 
love and compassion for a servant. This, it appears 
to me, was an extraordinary trait in tlie character of 
a Roman military officer of that period. This shows 
his kind sympathizing disposition. Then, his love 
for the Jewish nation, having built them a synagogue, 
in which he could not take a part, and in which, if 



356 riiE lord's miracles. ■ 

permitted to enter at all, he would be compelled to 
take a bacrk seat, and take no part in the exercises; 
his profound knowledge of the Messiah and of His 
mission, all indicate that he was a most extraordinary 
character. 

'^ I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under 
my roofy I cannot understand this language in any 
other light than that tliis man understood thoroughly 
the wliole mission and character of our Lord, and 
this appears to be confirmed by our Savior's excla- 
mation, that He had not found sucli faith in Israel. 
The analogy by which he compares his own posi- 
tion with tliat of the Savior is remarkable. He says, 
" I am a man undei* autliority ;' tliat is, he must be 
obedient to liis superior officers, and whatever tliey 
commanded him to do, he must obey. He also is 
an officer over otliers. He commands this servant 
to do this, and he doetli it. He commandeth tliat 
one to do that, and iiis command is immediately 
obeyed. Here we have the true character of the 
sixth great enemy of Israel — military rule, slavery 
to superior human officers, and not obedience to God. 
This man considered that, as Christ was Ruler over 
tlie spiritual world, that He had command over all 
disease's; He has l)ut to command, and He will be 
obeyed. Nor was lie wrong in this. He wlio cre- 
ated man at the beginning, and created his body in 
such a condition that it might be subject to disease, 
must certainly have power to make any cliange in 
His own workmanship tliat He chooses, or to repair 
any part that has become injured or is not of order. 

Some expositors have supposed that this centurion 



THE CENTDRIOn's SERVANT. 357 

looked upon Christ as King of tlie angels, and that 
He had but to command an nngel and he would do 
the work for Him ; while others supposed that he 
considered tlie different diseases as subject to so 
many demons, and as Christ had control over evil 
spirits, that He could command tliose demons to re- 
move the disease, and it would be done ; but I find 
nothing in the record to indicate that an angel or a 
demon could do it for Him. I tliink that he looked 
upon Christ as King over all diseases, which He 
really must have been, if He were the true Messiah 
of which all the prophets bore witness. 

Matthew savs : " Wlien Jesus heard it He mar- 
velled, and said to them that follow^ed. Verily, I say 
unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in 
Israel." With some it appears to be a difficulty, 
why Jesus, knowing the hearts of all men, should 
marvel. But I see no difficulty here. In this His 
humanity is manifested; just as it was in those cases 
where we are told that He had compassion, that He 
hungered, that He wept, etc. 

And to all human understanding this is a wonder, 
that the very people to whom the law was given, and 
to whom all the prophets had been sent, a people 
w^ho for ages had been taught tlie nature and coming 
of the Messiah, and of His kingdom, should not 
know Him when He came ; but should coldly turn 
away from Him and crucify Him ; while this and 
other Gentiles outside of the kingdom of Israel should 
so thoroughly comprehend His mission as at once to 
accept His doctrine, and enter into His Spirit and 



358 THE lord's miracles. 

kingdom. ''And I say unto yon," continues our 
Lord, " that many sliall come from tlie east and from 
the west, and sliall sit down with Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven ; but the 
children of tlie kingdom sliall be cast out into outer 
darkness ; tliere shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." 

Oh ! wliat a terrible warning this is to those 
who have received all the advantages of an early 
education ! pious parents who have endeavored to 
guide tlieir feet in infancy in the way they sliould 
go ; Christian privileges, in a land of Bibles and 
Bible influence ; the blessings of the Church and 
Sabbath scliool; the companionship of pious friends 
and relatives ; for whom many a prayer has been 
offered, and many a sympathi-zing tear shed ; with 
whom a kind father or an affectionate motlier has 
often pleaded ; upon whose ears many a gospel ser- 
mon has fallen as tlie ndn upon the hard rock, mak- 
ing no impression, and leaving no trace upon the 
page of memory; who have been induced by persua- 
tion, or the promise of rewards, to commit many 
passages of Scripture to memory, but upon tlie t*\b- 
let of whose cold, liard hearts tliose passages remain 
as meaningless as the fingerboai'd at a cross-road, 
whose inscription has been effaced, pointing, silently 
pointing, somewhere, but where the stranger knows 
not, until they rot and fall into the dust, useless to 
tlie world, to society, to the Church, to the Sabbath- 
school, and alike useless to themselves; pointing, 
pointing meaninglessly into space, indicating that 



THE CENTURION^S SERVANT* 359 

tlie great Physician has passed them and cured them 
not, for they knew not His power to heal ; indicat- 
ing that Christ had been preaclied to them in the 
gospel, but they know not the gospel's cleansing 
power; and so tlicy, the children of the kingdom, 
are cast out into outer darkness, wliile some poor 
wanderer, wlio has been born and educated in pagan 
lands, trained under some form of cold, lifeless pan- 
theism, wdio in his early years was taught by wicked 
parents to blaspheme the sacred name of Jesus; to 
look upon the book of Divine revelation as an assort- 
ment of old wives' fables; trained to look upon a 
God jealous of His holy law as a myth, and heaven 
and hell as the phantasm of a disordered brain ; sud- 
denly hears of Jesus Christ the Savior, and hearing 
believes, and believkig is saved, and becomes an 
heir of the kingdom, and is seated with Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob in the Paradise of God, saved 
from death and sin. 

There has been considerable discussion as to what 
tlie disease was with which tliis centurion's servant 
suffered. Matthew says tliat it was palsy, and that 
he was grievously tormented; and Luke adds that 
he was at the point of death. Palsy with us is not 
considered a painful disease. It is said, however, 
that there is a palsy in tlie cast that is very aggra- 
vated, and often produces death. Whether such is 
the case, or whether our translators should have 
given the name of some otlier disease, sucli as lock- 
javj^ is a matter of little consequence. The great 
fact remains, this servant was healed on account of 



360 THE lord's miracles. 

the faith and intercession of his master, and that 
master was outside of the visible kingdom. 

This teaches ns how careful those w4io have the 
care of cliildren and servants should be to intercede 
with Christ in their behalf, even supposing that they 
themselves are not members of the visible Cliurch. 



MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 

"After this there was a feast of the Jews ; and Jesus went up to 
Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a 
pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having 
five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, 
of blind, halt, withered, [waiting for the moving of the water. 
For an angel went down at a certain' season into the pool, and 
troubled the water : whosoever then first after the troubling of 
the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he 
had.] And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity 
thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew 
that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto 
him, Wilt thou be made whole ? The impotent man answered 
Him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put 
me into the pool : but while I am coming, another steppeth 
down before me. Jesus saith unto him. Rise, take up thy bed, 
and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and 
took up his bed, and walked : and on the same day was the 
Sabbath. 

The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured. It is the 
Sabbath day : it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He 
answered them. He that made me whole, the same said unto 
me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him. What 
man is that which said unto thee. Take up thy bed, and walk ? 
And he that was healed wist not who it was : for Jesus had 
conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in that place. 
Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him. 



MIKA.CLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 361 

Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thiuo- 
come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it 
was Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the 
Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had 
done these things oa the Sabbath day." — John v. 1-lG. 

" There vxis a feast of the JewsT It is a disputed 
question as to what feast is referred to here, and oue 
also which has excited much curiosity among Bible 
students. If it could be known to a certainty, we 
sliould then be no lono^er in doubt as to the leno^th 
of Christ's ministry. As it is at present, we must 
depend upon Daniel's prophecy, that it w^as half a 
week of years — that is, three years and six months, 
or twelve hundred and sixty days. It could hardly 
be at the Passover, as that occurred at an inclement 
season of the year, and does not correspond with the 
statement that a great multitude of sick people were 
lying under the porches at the pool of Bethesda. 

The next question connected with this miracle is 
tlie place. We are told that the pool was called 
Bethesda — a word signifying gate or house of mercy. 
A pool has for ages been pointed out to travellers as 
the pool of Bethesda; but as it is some seventy or 
eighty feet deep, it is impossible that that could have 
been the place. An intermittent fountain, however, 
has been found, which appears to correspond with 
the description given here. 

But a still greater mystery surrounds this miracle. 
All eminent critics pronounce the fourth verse of 
this chapter spurious. Alford, Tischendorf, and all 
others well versed in the Greek text, leave it out of 
the original, and I notice that the Revised Yersion 
does the same. It is found in none of the ancient 
16 



362 THE lord's miracles. 

manuscripts; and in those modern manuscripts in 
which the passage is found, it is witli various read- 
ings, and invariably marked with a star or asterisk, 
to denote that it is of doubtful origin. Again, there 
are seven words in this verse, part of which are to 
be found nowhere else in John's Gospel, and the 
others nowhere witli the same sense wliich they con- 
tain liere. In my own mind, an argument presents 
itself in favor of the genuine authorit}^ of this verse, 
which, to me at least, has great force, although it 
would be rejected by legitimate criticism. I think 
1 find an analogy — an application of the type to the 
antitype — in which the services of an angel, or some 
similar person, would be required. Supposing the 
pool to represent the gospel; it is dead, cold, wortli- 
less, until stirred up — preached by God's ministers — 
and then, wlioever embraces the opportunity im- 
mediately is saved; but if neglected, the stirring up 
soon becomes a dead letter, and loses its power. It 
is possible that occasionally passages similar to this 
mav have been mar^ijinal readin^js, afterwards incor- 
porated in the text by careless transcribers, or they 
may have been of genuine authority, derived from 
analogies in the prophecies of the Old Testament, 
and although not written by the person to whom the 
gospel or epistle is attributed, may nevertheless be 
of Divine authority. 

Again, there is another question of importance, 
and that is, as to where this fountain received its 
healing qualities. A theory, which has been enj- 
braced by many, is tliat the sacrifices of the temple 
being washed, the blood thus washed away ran down 



MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 363 

into this pool, and thus imparted to it its I)ealing 
qualities, and that oulj on the occasion of great 
festivals, and tliat a messeno-er (not an ano^el from 
lieaven) was sent down at a certain time, when the 
waters were supposed to be in a right condition, to 
stir them up, and then wlioever stepped in was 
liealed. But this does not correspond with the record, 
for it appears to me that such a natural cause as tliis, 
if it imparted a cure to one, would impart a cure to 
many at the same time. 

It is possible, however, that the reception of 
this passage into the text has had its origin in an 
error of doctrine in regard to baptism. It was taught 
in the earl}- church that the water used in baptism 
must be consecrated, or no good would result from 
it; — that there must, in some way, be a spiritual in- 
fluence imparted to the water; and then the candi- 
date must be immersed in it, and that he came out 
regenerated — that is, that a spiritual nature was 
imparted to him in baptism, which made him a new 
creature. Hence they speak of the baptismal angel 
consecrating the baptismal waters. This idea had 
become so extensive tliat it is quite possible that this 
passage had been introduced here in the margin, and 
afterwards incorporated in tlie text. 

The idea that the waters received any healing- 
properties from the washings of the sacrifices I be- 
lieve to be a myth, as there is no proof whatever 
that the sacrifices were ever washed. 

The facts of the case, as they present themselves 
to my own mind, are just these: tlie pool of Bethesda 
was an intermittent fountain. It was then as it is 



3G4: THE lord's miracles. 

now, onl}^ perhaps somewhat deeper, and with a more 
abundant supply of water. A modern traveller de- 
scribes it, if I remember rightly, as completel}' dry 
a portion of the time. People come with buckets 
and pitchers, and find no water, and sit down and 
wait till the water comes. It comes rushing for an 
hour or so from the rock, and then ceases to run — 
just like the preaching of the gospel in our pulpits 
to-day. 

1 believe that there were no healing qualities in the 
waters, nor were they imparted to them, any more than 
there were to the waters of the Jordan to effectuate 
a cure of leprosy, although, in the history of the 
world, one man was cured, not by the waters, but 
by a divine power impai'ted to him in consequence 
of his obedience and faith. His cure was a miracle, 
and so were these. 

These waters being typical, there was no healing 
quality imparted to the person who entered tliem 
except while they were in motion, and only so long 
as they remained pure. This pool coiresponds with 
all cases in the Levitical law in which running water 
was used. It was only beneficial while the water 
was running. The moment the water stop])ed run- 
ning, its value was gone. The waters could only 
cure while tiiey were in motion. AVhen the gospel 
is preached to sinners, it nnist be immediateh' em- 
braced, or it loses its power. "Today if ye will 
hear His voice, harden not your hearts." The mo- 
ment they came in contact with a diseased person, 
he was healed ; but in contact with him they became 
polluted, and could cure no others. We speak of 



MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 365 

the waters as imparting a healing power, although I 
must again deny that there was virtually any healing 
power inherent in them. I think that Christ would 
say to every one who was ever healed in this pool, 
^'Thy faitli hath made thee whole." The healing 
power was as much in the man as it was in the 
water. It was divine — a miracle called down from 
above by man's faith. And yet the gospel must be 
"stirred up," preached by human instrumentality, 
before the sinner can be benefited by its saving 
grace; otherwise it remains but a dead letter. 

This fountain of Bethesda is a type of the foun- 
tain of life to which the prophet Zechariah refers 
when he says, " In tliat day there shall be a fountain 
opened to the house of David and to tlie inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." (Zech. 
xiii. 1.) The analogy here is perfect. To many the 
word of God is but a dry, rocky channel, containing 
no cooling, refreshing stream. To some, it may con- 
tain for them, through the larger portion of life, no- 
thing but a dry, arid rock, and then suddenly break 
forth into a cool, healing fountain of life, that will 
calm every fever and heal every wound, but when 
polluted by human infirmity, loses its power. It must 
be pure — the pure, living word, unmingled with hu- 
man error and perfectly free from false doctrine; but 
-contaminated with these, its power is gone for ever. 

It has been observed that the spiritual kingdom 
of God is divided into three departments, the law, 
the gospel, and the Spii'it, or that of justice, mercy, 
and faith. The name of tliis pool, Bethesda (House 
of Mercy), would indicate that it is a type of the 



366 THE lord's miracles. 

second department, that of tlie gospel. This, again, 
is subdivided into five porches, under which is a 
great multitude of infirm persons, suffering the weight 
of tlieir sins, and longing to be made free from the 
bonds of the law by the preaching of the gospel of 
peace. It would be well to remember tliis mystic 
number jive liere, as we may have occasion to refer 
to it again. 

^^Aiid a certain man ivas tliere^ lohicli had an m- 
firmity thirty and eight years. It is usually sup- 
posed that this man had been lying in the porches 
of Bethesda tln'rty-eight years. Otliers, to avoid 
the supposed difficult}', make him thirty eight years 
of age. The record says that he had suffered thirty- 
eight years with the malady. It does not tell how 
long he had been at the pool of Bethesda. It may 
have been a month, or it may have been several 
years ; Jolin does not tell us. 

" When Jesus saw him lie., and I' new that he had 
been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him, 
Wilt thou he made lohole f The impotent man an- 
swered Him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is 
troubled, to put me into the pool ; hut while I avi 
coming, another steppeth doiim hefore me.'''' Notice, 
here, that Jesus singles out one, and only one, of 
this multitude, and tliat one was a person who was 
unable to help himself. All others who had been 
healed heretofore wei-e able to help themselves, or 
had some kind relative or friend who was able and 
willing to assist them; but this man was all alone in 
the world, with no sympathizing friend to take him 
by the hand and lead him down into the liealing 



MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 367 

fountain. Year after year he saw others going away 
liealed, but he must suffer disappointment after dis- 
appointment. Israel had her priests, her scribes and 
Pharisees, lier elders, and rulers of her synagogues; 
all sliepherds — all professing to lead the unclean 
into tlie ways of purity and holiness, and no doubt 
many of them were good and faithful shepherds; 
but this man, like the woman healed of the bloody 
issue, had failed to profit by any of these physicians. 
But it was to just such as he was that Christ came, 
tliat is, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It 
was when he found himself alone in the world, with 
no eye to pity him and none to have compassion on 
him, that the blessed Savior comes and asks him if 
he would be made whole. 

'^ Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy hed, and 
walk. A?id immediately the 'man was "made vjhole, 
and took up his bed, and loalkedy Notice that 
Christ here heals this man entirely outside of all 
ceremonial law. He received no baptism from the 
pool, but he was liealed even before he knew that it 
was Jesus that healed him. Others may derive what 
inference they choose from tliis remarkable circum- 
stance, but as for me, it is an abundant testimony 
that it is not necessary to bathe in the pool, or know 
Christ unto perfection, in order to taste His healing 
power to save. Christ commands him to take up 
his bed, and walk. Although he may pass from un- 
der the dominion of the law into the kingdom of 
grace, yet a remembrance of past sins, and not only 
their remeffibrance, but their pernicious influence, 
like a sad weight of sorrow, will still cling to him, 



368 THE lord's miracles. 

and mar his happiness in that Sabbath of grace re- 
served for the sanctified until the body returns to 
dust. 

" On the same day vms the Sahhath^^ Here was 
a cause for war. This great Prophet liad com- 
manded this man to break the hiw of Moses. And 
he certain!)' did, from a Jewisli standpoint of view, 
break it, for the hiw expressly commands that no 
burden be carried on tlie Sabbath day. (Ex. xxxi. 
13-17; Neh. xiii. 15-19; Jer. xvii. 21-22.) In 
their pretended love for Moses they lose sight of the 
Son of God. The wonderful miracle in the eyes of 
these malignant Jews dwindles to a uiole hill, and 
is lost sight of, behind the great mountain of crime 
of wJiich they accuse our Lord. And their folly is 
presented to us on the sacred page as a warning to 
men through all time; and 3'et not a week passes tliat 
we do not have examples of Satan's disciples doing 
the same tiling, and preparing a record of their own 
shame, to be posted on their own brazen foreheads 
through eternity, a spectacle to angels and to men. 

I have said that Christ commanded tliis man to 
break the law of Moses ; let us examine the subject 
a little fartlier and see if this is virtually true. Not- 
withstanding the proofs I have referred to, I do not 
tliinkHedid. I am inclined to tliink this was an 
exception, and does not come under that law. Tlie 
law of Moses required that he should do no work 
for Jiimself on tliat day; but there was no command 
that he should do no work, or carry no burdens, for 
the Lord on the Sabbath day. If by carrying his 
bed on the Sabbath day he could glorify God, by 



MIRACLE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 369 

manifesting tlie wonderful cure that had been per- 
formed upon him bj Divine miracle, there was no 
law of Moses broken, and his accusers bring them- 
selves under just condemnation. 

''''Afterward Jesus findeth him in the templeP 
This presents a pleasing indication. He immediately 
went to the temple, probably to return thanks to God 
for liis cure. 

" 8in no rnore^ lest a worse thing come ujjon thee.'''' 
The inference derived from tliese words of Jesus is, 
that some great sin had been the cause of this calam- 
ity. Thirty-eight long years of suffering he had en- 
dured for this sin. Perhaps he was quite young 
when this sin was committed, say, between twenty 
and thirty years of age ; he would now be an old 
man, between sixty and seventy. But if he sins 
again, a worse calamity is to befall him. Worse 
than thirty-eight j-ears of suffering must now extend 
into eternity. And will people tell us that punish- 
ment for sin is limited to this life ? This man had 
now passed into the second department of the king- 
dom, and the law still had its hold upon him. He 
was in the temple observing the Mosaic law. If he 
had entered tlie third, or kingdom of the Spirit, in- 
to which the apostles entered on the day of Pente- 
cost, I do not think that Jesus w^ould have addressed 
him with such language. He is now justified ; he 
would then have been sanctified, and sucJi language 
as "sin no more lest a worse tiling come upon tliee," 
would have been inappropriate. 

This man, who knew not his Divine Benefactor in 
the multitude, knew^ Him in the temple, and pro- 



370 THE i.ord's miracles. 

claims Him to the world. And oh! what a perse- 
cution has been raised against Jesus and His Church 
because He heals the sin-sick soul ! For this very 
reason Judaism and paganism combined in the ear- 
lier ages to overtlirow His kingdom. 

Sinner, come to the healing fountain ; God will 
move tliese waters for you, if you earnestly desire 
it, and send His life-giving power into your heart. 
Would you be made whole ? forsake your sins and 
come to Christ. Tliis is the true House of Mercy^ 
and all are healed who can come here ; but here 
tlieir virtues are lost. They cannot pass to otliers 
polluted by human error. 

And now we come to tlie practical teachings of 
the lesson. Much as 1 despise ritualism, I do not 
deprecate the appropriate instruments of grace, but 
would by no means attach an undue iniportance to 
tliem. We are not told how many may have been 
healed in this pool. Under old Judaism millions 
may have been saved, while as many others may 
have been lost. 

Again, observe that the impotent man complains 
that he had no man to put him into the pool, and 
that while he was coming otliei's stepped down be- 
fore him. It made no difference how he got in, so 
that he really was in. Kind parents and teachers 
may have led him to the fountain, or he may iiave 
had his birth in pagan lands, and hearing the gospel 
preached for the first time, may have at once plunged 
into the living stream. And this reminds me of that 
expressive feature in the baptism of Paul. It is 
usually supposed that Ananias baptized Paul; but 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 371 

exaiiiiiiiDcr the orio'inal text we find that Ananias 
said to Paul, "Arise and baptize thyself, and wash 
away tliy sins, calling on His name." (Acts xxii. 
16.) This man is healed without ever having been 
in the pool at all; and thousands will be found in 
Abraham's bosom who have never been circumcised 
in the flesh; and thousands will sit at the Lord's 
table in heaven who never sat at His visible table on 
earth. May Christ heal us all as He sees fit, and 
on the Sabbath day if He chooses ; and if we in- 
wai'dly worship Moses instead of Christ, may we re- 
nounce him, as well as all others whom we have 
transformed in our carnal blindness into idols, and 
learn to worship Christ alone, who alone is able to 
cleanse us from the power of sin. 



THE FIYE THOUSAND FED. 

* ' And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, 
This is a desert place, and the time is now past : send the mul- 
titude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy them- 
selves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not de- 
part ; give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, We have 
here but live loaves and two fishes. He said. Bring them 
hither to Me. And He commanded the multitude to sit down 
on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and 
looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the 
loaves 1o His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And 
they did all eat, and were filled : and they took up of the frag- 
ments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had 
eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and chil- 
dren." — Matt. xiv. 15-21. 

Upon the death of John the Baptist, Christ retires 
to the desert. The reason usually given for this is, 



372 THE lord's miracles. 

that as Christ's time was not yet come to be cruci- 
fied, He went to the desert in order to be more se- 
cure, and thus continue His mission unmolested un- 
til His hour u^as fullv come. I liardlj think tliat 
this was the true reason. I observe that Jolm com- 
mences liis account of tliis miracle by saying tliat 
" the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." 
This was not only to indicate at wliat ser.son of the 
year this occurred, but also to show that great multi- 
tudes were passing thi'ough the desert from all parts 
of Israel to attend this great feast at Jerusalen; and 
as John's mission was not closed or finished bv him- 
self when lie was beheaded, and his work being left 
incomplete, Christ went to the desert — John's mis- 
sion field — to complete tliat work upon those very 
multitudes wending their way up to Jerusalem. The 
Passover was a type of tliat bread wliich came down 
from heaven to give life to tlie world. In the last 
miracle we liad the gospel ])resented to us in the 
form of water wasliing away sin, but in this it is pre- 
sented to us in the form of bread — spiritual food, of 
which the Passover was an appropriate emblem — 
hence we see how appropriate was this miracle, in 
wliich bread was the principal object on this occa- 
sion. 

^'And they say unto Him, We liave here hut five 
loaves and two fishes^ The evangelist John has 
recorded a conversation between Christ and His 
disciples which has been omitted by the other evan- 
gelists. Christ said " unto Philip, w^hence shall we 
buy bread that these may eat ? And this He said 
to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 373 

do. Philip answered Him, Two hundred penny- 
worth of bread is not sufficient for tliem, that every 
one may take a little. One of His disciples, Andrew, 
Simon Peter's brother, said unto Him, There is a 
lad here, which hath five barley loaves and two 
small fishes ; but what are they among so many ?" 
(John vi. 5-9.) The other evangelists probably con- 
sidered, as they usually did, that Peter was the 
spokesman for the whole of the disciples, and at- 
tributed to them what he said for them. 

Pliilip said that two hundred pennyworth of 
bread would not be sufficient for such a multitude. 
From other parts of the Scripture we learn that a 
penny was the pay for a day's labor — say about one 
dollar of our money. Considering this sum, then, 
to be about two hundred dollars, it would not be far 
out of the way in purchasing a meal for five thou- 
sand people. 

A notable point here should not be overlooked in 
this connection. The names of the two disciples 
who figure here in this conversation are Philip and 
Andrew, both Greek names, which indicates that 
some of their ancestry were of Greek origin, and 
consequently proselytes to the Jewish religion. 
When "certain Greeks" desired to see Jesus, they 
came to Philip and Andrew (John xii. 20-22), pro- 
bably recognizing in them the characteristics of 
their own nation. Peter also was a brother of An- 
drew, and the three w^ere natives of Bethsaida, a 
town within whose territory this miracle was pro- 
bably performed. These three persons, representing 
the most carnal and legal part of the disciples, had 



374: THE lord's MIRACLES. 

probably embraced this peculiar phase of the Jewish 
system from their intense love of the law, yet being 
unable to hold any office in the nation, from the fact 
that they could not trace their genealogy back to 
Abraham, v^re the more ready to accept such office 
under Christ. The name Philip signifies a lover of 
horses — a name which no true Hebrew would ever 
give to his child, the horse being to the Jew an un- 
clean animal, and only tolerated as an instrument in 
warfare. AVe may then say tliat the name Philip 
virtually signifies a warrior. Andrew also signifies 
inanliness., strength^ courage — the attributes of a war- 
rior, and to a great extent manifested in tlie horse — 
an animal which I understand to represent, in the 
typical language of prophecy, man's carnal nature. 
I also observe that the mystical number "five,'' 
which occupies a prominent part in this miracle, 
when used in the Old Testament, is usually in con- 
nection with valor, courage, bravery, etc., attributes 
of the horse as well as of the warrior. 

''''And He commanded the 'multitude to sit dow7i 
on the grass^ Luke says, "And He said to His 
disciples, Make them sit down b}' fifties in a com- 
pany." We see here the order displayed by the 
Divine Head of the Church which should ever char- 
acterize the officers of His Church on earth. If 
they had been allowed to come and help themselves, 
men, women, and children rushing headlong to secure 
a portion, confusion and disorder would soon have 
been the result. But He has them all seated in 
companies, and then gives the bread to His disciples, 
and the disciples, passing through each company in 



THE FIVE THOrSAND FED. 375 

regular order, give the bread to the multitude. 
Again, I think I perceive in this sitting down a sub- 
mission of the (3arnal nature of man to the morality 
of the gospel, typified in the bread of which they 
were about to partake. 

We notice, again, tliat it was barley, and not 
wheat bread, that was given to the multitude. Bar- 
ley has ever been considered, in all ages, a very 
humble fare, and such as was mucli more appropriate 
for servants or laboring men than for the children 
and members of the father's familj^; consequently 
the bread here would rather represent the spiritual 
bread of the old dispensation than that of the new. 
This, again, appears to me to be a link binding 
Christ's desert-work with that of Jolui the Baptist. 
Yet barley-bread was grateful to a hungry multitude 
on their way to Jerusalem. Had they been return- 
ing from Jerusalem, after having partaken of the 
sumptuous fare of the great capital, the case would 
have been materially different. 

Mark says, "He commanded them to make all sit 
down by companies upon the green grass." Why 
is this green grass mentioned? I am very much in- 
clined to accept the verbal^ instead of the plenary 
theory of the inspiration of tlie Scriptures. Alford 
and others contend that the plenary inspiration of 
the Scriptures is necessarj^ in order to reconcile the 
evangelists ; but I do not consider this necessary if 
we take the view, which I hold, that each evangelist 
wrote that part, and only that part, which concerned 
the one peculiar characteristic of Christ which he as 
an evangelist felt himself bound to give to the world. 



376 THE lord's miracles. 

whether as King, Priest, Prophet, or Quickening 
Spirit. 

The statement liere that there was "much green 
grass in the place, ' must have its meaning, or it is 
no part of God's word. On the same principle, I 
would observe, that in all our studies of the Bible 
we should ever observe all these little items, and 
strive to learn their meaning. They may appear to 
be of little consequence now, but the day may come 
when these little items will recall to our minds very 
important truths in intimate connection with analo- 
gies running all through the Bible. 

The Greek words translated "green grass" are 
yXwpo'^ yr^opziv^. The word ylwtur^ occurs in tlie descrip- 
tion of the opening of the fourth seal in Revelation 
vi. 8, >.-r.i)^ yJ-'U"'^') '^^^^ ^s erroneously translated a pale 
horse. It should be a green horse^ green l)eing a 
symbol of i-egcneration. In the passage before us, 
it rather signifies that which produces regeneration, 
and refers here to tlie nature of that which gives 
spiritual life. The whole imagery of the occasion 
was intended to impress the minds of the audience 
with the Old Testament idea of a sheplierd feeding 
his flock in the desert, and make them see vividly 
the connecting link between the type and the anti- 
type. The shepherd Psalmist of Israel says: "The 
Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. He maketh 
me to lie down in green pastures; He leadcth me 
beside' the still waters." (Ps. xxiii. 1, 2.) David, the 
ancient shepherd, fed liis flock with green grass; but 
the Good Shepherd gives to His flock, on this occa- 
sion, hread — a far more appropriate symbol of that 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 377 

spiritual food which came down from heaven to give 
life to the world. 

" There is a lad here which hath five harley loaves 
and two small fishes^ John alone, tlie most spiritual 
of the evangelists, mentions these five barley loaves 
as being the property of a lad. Some manuscripts 
have " a certain lad." What otlier object could tliere 
be in giving us this information but to convey the 
mind back to tlie sheplierd boy, (David, for instance,) 
who carries with him liis daily supply of provisions 
while attending his flocks in the desert, and with 
which he is ready to part, selling or giving to the 
disciples for a sufiicient recompense ? 

Again, observe the number of loaves and fishes. 
Ten is usually understood to represent the v:hole of 
any tiling, and five one-half. If, then, we consider 
the kingdom of Israel to be divided into two equal 
parts, the number five would represent one of these 
parts. We notice a peculiar example of this in the 
parable of the ten virgins — five were foolish and five 
were wise. The same peculiaritj^ may be observed 
wherever this number occurs in the Old Testament. 
When the kino- of Samaria wished to know what had 
become of the Syrian arm}^, " One of his servants 
answered, and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five 
of the horses that yet remain, which are left in the 
city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel 
which are left in it; behold, I say, they are even as 
all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) 
and let us send and see." (2 Kings vii. 13.) The 
suggestion of sending horses in this passage shows a 
connection with the names of Philip and Andrew, 



378 THE lord's miracles. 

just referred to. Five, then, represents that half of 
the multitude to be profited by the eating of the 
bread, as well as that other half whicli would receive 
no benefit from it. The numbers fi>fty and five 
hundred have probably a similar significance. In 
tlie last miracle water was the symbol of tlie gospel, 
and in tliis bread. In that, there were five porclies 
in which the sick were laid, awaiting the healing 
power win'ch moved the waters ; and in this, five 
loaves give refreshment to five tliousand men, be- 
sides women and children. The number five liere is 
significant, and well wortliy of our study. 

*' He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and 
looking up to heaven, lie hlessed, and brake, and gave 
the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the 
'inultitiideP Let me call your attention to the 
peculiar language used here in regard to the bless- 
ing. What was it He blessed ? Did He bless the 
bread, or did He bless the people, or did He bless 
His Father in heaven ? I notice that in the establish- 
ment of the Eucharist, we are told that "He took 
the bread and gave thanks;" or, in other words, He 
blessed God. I am inclined to think that, unless 
there were especial reasons for doing so, Christ 
blessed our Father in heaven rather than the material 
element. 

And now comes tlie miracle itself — a wonderful 
mystery, which is above and beyond our comprehen- 
sion. The sacred narrator has merely given the 
facts in the case, and made no attempt whatever to 
reveal the secret. In the case of water turned into 
wine, we have one element transformed into another, 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 379 

and yet all the properties possessed by the secoHd, 
which did not belong to the first, must liave been an 
act of creation. Here no new element and no new 
properties are created ; bat the quantity is increased, 
and that by no natural process. Wlieat or corn sown 
into the ground is increased from year to year by a 
natural process; but no natural process can make it 
grow into bread. A thousand questions might be 
asked here, but who can answer them ? We can 
analyze bread, and resolve it into its component 
elements; and we know that these elements are held 
more or less in solution in the atmosphere, in water, 
and in the soil from which tlie living plant receives 
its support and nourishment. Did Christ, in this 
miracle, suddenly condense these elements, as the 
electricity in the atmosphere is suddenly condensed, 
forming tlie thunderbolt? Or was it as much a part 
of Almight}' creation as the creation of a world tVom 
nothing? We believe the creation of the earth to 
have been gradual. If we examine the rocks, we 
find them filled with sea-shells, indicating a long, 
tedious process through which tliey have passed in 
their formation, running through millions of ages. 
If we had a piece of those barley loaves given to the 
five thousand in our possession to-day, and could put 
it under a microscope, would we find it filled with 
particles of bran and fibre belonging to the barley 
grain, or was it a pure barley flour, free from all 
those imperfections belonging to the natural grain — 
a barley flour such as was never seen on earth on 
any other occasion ? Or could we examine those 
fish, would we find it Dure flesh, such as was never 



380 THE lord's miracles. 

eaten by mortal man, except in these instances in 
wliich the Great Miracle Worker produced it for 
His disciples and friends? or would we find it filled 
with bones and sinews, with here and there a broken 
fish-scale — particles of earthly matter which were 
unfit for food? 

Or, supposing that we take a similar case. Bread 
we know is manufactured by man from a grain 
formed by a natural process of cultivation and 
growth, and tlien by the artificial means of crushing, 
grinding, bolthig, etc., is transformed into flour, and 
then, l)y leavening and baking, into bread. Now, 
suppose tliat, instead of bread, w^e take a steamship. 
In the manufacture of this ship we will find corres- 
ponding degrees of development to those which we 
found in the process of makincr bread. The oak for 
the timber grows upon the mountain side, and the 
iron for its boilers and machinery has been formed 
by a natural process in the bowels of the earth. 
Man has collected these elements, and has brought 
them into proper shape, and put them together and 
polished them, until he looks upon the work of his 
hands as it plows its way in majestic grandeur 
through the briny waves, and he calls it perfect. 
But let us examine it. Beneath the paint which 
covers its exterior we behold the grains of the oak, 
showing how it came into existence, and we even de- 
tect imperfections in the oak itself — knots, worm 
holes, etc., filled up with putty, rotten places — in 
fact we may say that hardly a perfect spot is to be 
found in it. Now we examine the machhiery, and 
we find the iron filled with earthy particles, and 



THE FIVE THOUSA.ND FED. 381 

covered with liammer marks ; full of imperfections, 
resulting botli from man's carelessness, and nature's 
defects in preparing tlie materials. Now, if Christ, in- 
stead of creating a loaf of bread, had instantaneously 
created a steamship, wonld it be like man's work, 
or would it be free from all defects, even from knot 
lioles filled up with puttj, and even free from porous 
holes, seen only with the microscope, and forming 
the grain of the wood ? 

I know that it is an easy matter to say that what 
Christ has made is perfect ; but it is not quite so 
easy to prove it. The world which He has created 
is, in its present state, far from being perfect. It is 
filled with suffering and misery, giving us overwhelm- 
ing proof of its deficiency; but I believe that He 
will create a world which will be perfect. The old 
covenant was not perfect. It waxed old and passed 
away ; and the whole present dispensation, with all 
its imperfections, must pass away, in order to give 
place to one which is perfect. 

Christ is the representative of a true gospel min- 
ister — the Good Shepherd who feeds His flock with 
the bread of life. The bread is the Bible — coarse 
barley bread to some, angel's food to others. The 
number of loaves (five) indicate perfection, but with 
the two fishes, or a doubling of the loaves, which 
gives us ten, is a symbol of perfection. And it is as- 
tonishing how often this number occurs in the life 
of the early sheplierd of Israel. Jesse had tliree 
sons fighting in the camp, and he sends to them by 
the hand of David, the sheplierd lad, " an ephah {ten 
omers) of corn, ten loaves," and " ten cheeses." The 



382 THE lord's miracles. 

supply of food, then, in ten parts, was sufficient, and 
consequent!}' an emblem of perfection. 

''''And they did all eat, and we^^e filled; and they 
took up of the fragments that remained twelve haskets 
fulir St. Augustine says: "That all the acts of 
Christ, wlio was God's Word manifested to us, are 
not pictures for us to look at and admire, but lessons 
for us to study and meditate upon." Christ, the 
Livini2^ Bread that came down from lieaven for the 
life of the world, is an inexhaustible supply. Mil- 
lions may ever eat of Him, and yet there is an 
abundance left. Here we have an evidence of the 
Divine authority of this record of which no man 
can rob us. The bread here was not Christ in per- 
son, but Christ in the word. To tlie great mass of 
mankind the Bible is of no more value than a barley 
loaf; and yet to those who have eaten of it, and 
found it the bread of life, it has increased in value, 
and the more they study its sacred pages, the more 
its beauties appear, until the book becomes the pearl 
of great price, and the possessor would be willing 
to exchange the kingdoms of the world, if he pos- 
sessed them, for su(;li a treasure. 

It is stated that there wei-e five thousand fed, be- 
sides women and cliildren. Five thousand being a 
number which would represent the sanctified, the 
women and children would represent the discipleship, 
or to extend the figure still farther, may be a faint 
shadow of the reception of the Gentiles in the com- 
ing dispensation. 

The statement that there were twelve baskets full 
of fragments taken up, appears to refer to the perfect 



THE FIVE THOUSAND FED. 383 

satisfaction of the Cliui-cli, procuring her complete 
salvation, and an overplus, in which twelve apostles 
are filled to overflowing with the word in readi- 
ness to* carry it out to the Gentile world when the 
door is opened for them to do so. Twelve baskets 
full was evidently a much larger quantity than they 
had at tlie beginning, and yet notice how careful our 
Savior is tliat none should be lost. He who gives 
us our daily bread. He who su[)plies us our time, and 
all we possess, requires of us that we waste nothing. 
Why this care of the fragments, when Almighty 
power can create a world of bread as big as the 
planet Jupiter just as easy as He could create a sin- 
gle loaf ? 

Is it not to teach us the value of our dependence 
on Him, and not the value of the article itself ? 
Take a child, for example, who has been raised in 
wealth, and he knows nothing of the value of money. 
It" his parents die, and lie suddenl}^ comes into pos- 
session of what appears to him to be unlimited 
wealth, he will spend it in a few months. Ho knows 
7iothing of its value, and only learns what it is when 
it is gone, and he is reduced to beggary ; and not until 
he finds how much it costs to earn food enough for 
a week's supply, does he learn the worth of the for- 
tune that he has foolishly squandered. Whereas, on 
the other hand, the child who has to work hard for 
every toy he buys, or every dime he spends on a 
holiday, learns the value of money, and in later 
years he will take good care of that which has cost 
him so much hard labor. And so it is in the re- 
ligious or spiritual world. If God would supply 



384r THE lord's MIRACLES. 

our wants by miracle, as Christ supplied these five 
thousand men with bread, we should never appre- 
ciate His kingdom. 

It is only by passing through a world of trrnl and 
pain and suffering, earning our daily bread by the 
sweat of our brow, that we shall learn to appreciate 
the value of that world where all our wants shall be 
supplied by eternal miracle. 

l^efore leaving this subject, I will just notice a 
rationalist theorj^ which explains the whole witliout 
any difficulty. Tiiis company on tlieir way to Jeru- 
lem had a supply of provisions, but kept them hid 
for tlieir own use. Many who had no provisions 
were in want. Jesus willingl}' divides His own lit- 
tle morsel, which they had just bought for their own 
use. The example was contagious. Tliose having 
provisions suddenly became generous, and they 
brought out so many pieces of bread and fish that 
there were enough to till twelve large baskets, from 
which all feasted to their entire satisfaction. The 
passage '' fragments that reniained," they would 
translate "fragments tliat were gathered ;" that is, 
from tlie company. But those of us who believe 
that Christ is God have no need to resort to so 
miserable a subterfuge as this. The creator of the 
universe can create bread when and where He will. 
Christ, the Bread of Life, is an inexliaustible supply. 
Header, will He be our supply through eternity ? 



CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA. 385 



CHEIST WALKING ON THE SEA. 

* * And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a 
a ship, "and to go before Him unto the other side, while He sent 
the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes 
away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray : and when 
the evening was come, He was there alone. But the ship was 
now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves : for the wind was 
contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went 
unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw 
Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a 
spirit ; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus 
spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not 
afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, 
bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come. 
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on 
the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boister- 
ous, he was afraid: and beginning to sink, he cried, saying. 
Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His 
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little 
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when they were come 
into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the 
ship came and worshipped Him, saying. Of a truth Thou art 
the Son of God."— Matt. xiv. 22-33. 

Here, again, we have a miracle in intimate con- 
nection with the sea. In all these miracles in which 
the sea occupies a prominent part, I find such an in- 
timate relationship that I feel very much inclined to 
believe that they were all designed to teach one and 
the same lesson, in its different phases, as I find the 
same analoofies runnino- through them all. 

"Jesus constrained His disciples to get i^ito a shijpP 
Tliere is an indication here that Christ had some 
difficulty in persuading His disciples to enter the 
ship, at least such I understand to be the meaning 
of the word " constrained." John explains this by 
17 



386 THE lobd's miracles. 

telling us that the reason why He went into the 
mountain alone, was, that "He perceived that they 
would come and take Him by force and make Him 
a king." So we may readily suppose that His dis- 
ciples did not wish to be separated from Him on 
this occasion, but would much rather have remained 
with Him; for if during their absence the people 
made Him a king, they might be overlooked, and 
not obtain those higli positions in His new kingdom 
which they so earnestly wished for. They no doubt 
understood well how earthly sovereigns, on such 
occasions, do not at all times comply with the strict 
rules of justice in granting their favors, but are often 
liable to forget old friends and grant their favors to 
newcomers, who, althougli far less worthy, make 
greater pretensions, and carry away the prize through 
persuasion and deception. Hence, upon the prin- 
ciple of being served first, they wished to remain 
with Him. 

^^A?id when He had sent the multitudes away^ He 
went ujp into a mountain apart to pray ; and when 
the evening vms come, He was there aloneP Here 
we find Jesus praying alone in the mountain. We 
are not told what the prayer was which He offered 
to God; whether he prayed for Himself, or for His 
disciples. The inference, however, is, that it was 
for His disciples. AVhatever this prayer was, we 
know, from the fact that it was delivered in secret 
and alone, that it was not an example or pattern 
given to the disciples, like the Lord's Prayer, but 
something that concerned Jesus alone. I consider 
these praj^ers as part of His work on earth as a 



CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA. 387 

gospel minister, in which He was, in all probability, 
engaged in interceding for His disciples. 

" The ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed 
vjith waves; for the ivind luas contrary P Mark 
says, " And He saw them toiling in rowing : for tlie 
wind was contrary unto them." Alone in prayer in 
the mountain, He was still in spirit with His dis- 
ciples. '"'He saw them toiling," although He was 
not personally with them, and hence the inference that 
He was praying for tlieni. Becon)ing so intensely 
interested in tlieir welfare. His human sympathy 
going out through the darkness towards them. He is 
at once precipitated bodily across the waters, and 
appears in their presence. Has the Divine in this 
instance so combined with the human that it operates 
ij;i unison with it, and carries Him safely down the 
mountain side and across the stormy waves to His 
suffering, toiling disciples ? We here find a perfect 
analogy between the condition of this ship and the 
old covenant Church. Christ was not at all times 
personally in human form present with the ancient 
Church. They, too, passed through a long, stormy 
night, in which they toiled in rowing, for the wind 
was contrary. We must remember that the ship or 
vessel spoken of here was very diiferent from our 
yachts in present use on our lakes and rivers. Sails 
could be used in fine weather, but in stormy weather 
sailors were provided with oars, and sat in hanks or 
rows above each othei', the upper bank liaving the 
longest oars. It was hard personal effort, which 
produced but little progress. Three watches of the 
niii;ht had passed away, and but little had been 



388 THE lord's miracles. 

gained. Moses and the judges, the kings and the 
prophets, liad occupied tlie first tliree watches of the 
night, and now they are in the last watch before 
morning, or between three and six o'clociv. John's 
mission had been already established, and the dis- 
ciples had taken it, and were now lal.)oring with but 
little progress, and no prospect of advancement from 
their own efforts. ^^ In the fourth watch of the 
night " tliey had accomplished no more than '^five and 
tioenty or thirty furlongs^^ only about half their 
journey across, when tliey see Him " walking upon 
the sea.^^ 

In a former miracle we have Christ with His dis- 
ciples in a storm, but He is asleep; but in tins case 
He sends them out alone, while He ren:ains on the 
mountain to pray. 

''Jle loould have passed hy thetn^"* says Mark. 
How often does Jesus apparently pass us by in order 
to try our faith. Going with the disciples to Emmaus, 
He made as though He would have gone farther. 
This was to try them. Did they want His company, 
or did they not? He would pass them by, but upon 
the first intimation that His company is wanted, He 
is willing to I'emain with them. 

'-''And when the discip>les saw Ilim walking on the 
sea, they were trouhled, saying^ It is a spirit ; and 
they cried out for fear ^ How are we to understand 
this? AVas it a mere superstition on the part of the 
disciples? Was it a superstition which they had 
derived from the pagans around them, or are there 
spirits in the air, which have the power of rendering 
themselves visible to human eyes? 



CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA. 389 

" Jesus spake unto thern, saying, Be of good cheer ; 
it is I; he not afraid.''^ In that moment, wlien their 
hearts were about to sink within them, a well-known 
voice comes through tlie darkness, saying, '*Be of 
good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." If Christ be 
the Jehovah — the Creator, the one only God — we 
then liave verified in tliis act the words of the ancient 
seer, ''He alone spreadeth out the heavens, and 
treadeth upon the waves of tlie sea.'' (Job ix. 8.) 

''^ And Peter answered Him, and said, Lord, if it 
he Thou, hid me come unto Thee on the water. And 
He said, Come. And when Peter teas come doion 
out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to 
Jesus.''' Here we have a manifestation of that 
peculiar, injpulsive character of Peter, — his bold- 
ness; his rashness. He does not for a moment 
think of the consequence. He does not stop to 
think whether he can walk on the water or not. 
^^ Bid me come to Thee.^^ Observe his languege; he 
does not say bid us, but bid me. I, Peter, am of 
great importance. I am tlie rock, tlie first of all the 
disciples. They have no rights whicli I am bound 
to respect until my desires are granted. This was 
the same spirit that he manifested on another occa- 
sion, when he said, "Although all men forsake Thee, 
/ w^ill not," not for a moment considering what 
would be the result of such a rash promise. The 
bio:o:est idol in his breast was I. One would have 
supposed that the egotism w^liich he manifested on 
this occasion, and which came so near proving ruinous 
to him, would have taught him a lesson that would 
have restrained him hereafter, and that he would 



390 THE LORD S MIRACLES. 

not have madlj^ rushed into the same difficiiltj a 
second time; but such luen sehJom learn wisdom 
from experience. Alas! for poor Peter's egotism, 
which placed liim before all the other disciples. How 
soon was it sadly humbled. "Bid me come to Thee^ 
Christ does not bid liim come to Himself. Peter's 
request was not fully granted; Christ merely says 
"come," not "come to Me." Come if you will; come 
if you can. Tf you imagine that you can walk these 
stoi'iny waters, come on. 

'^ And He said. Come. And when Peter was 
come down oid of the ship, he ivalked on the water to 
go to Jesus. But lohen he saw the wind boisterous, he 
was afraid; and heginning to sink, he cried^ saying, 
Lord, save ???e." Here we see at once tliat the 
miracle was not alone confined to our Lord, as by 
one who, by some magic art, had learned to walk 
upon tlie sea as upon a solid pavement. We have 
heard of persons wlio, by means of innnense coi'k 
soles, or rubber bags filled with air, and a long staff 
to keep tliem upriglit, liave, with great difficulty, 
been able to walk upon smootli, sliallow watei', but 
not one, 1)}^ any such invention, lias yet learned to 
walk upon a boisterous sea. Now, we see this power 
also conferred to Peter; but is it in Peter, or is it in 
the water? Dana commences his mineralogy by 
saying that all that has not life is a mineral. Water, 
he says, is as much a mineral as mercury, or a pie(!e 
of granite. The only difference is that they are solid 
at different temperatures. It requires a gi-eater 
degree of heat to melt granite than it does ice. Now^, 
was there some mysterious power iniparted to the 



CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA. 



391 



water under Peter's feet that transformed it into ice? 
He who created the ocean could easily congeal a 
portion of tlie sea of Galilee at His will. The 
psalmist tells us tliat, when Israel passed through 
tlie Red Sea, "the waters were congealed." 

^'' But when he saw the wind boisterous^ he was 
afraid; and hegiiviing to sink, he cried, sayiiig^, 
Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched 
forth His hand, and caught hhn, and said' unto him, 
thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou douhtP 
Peter's courage did not last long; but if he had 
trusted fully, believing in his heart that Jesus would 
take care of him, there would have been no need of 
his saying " Lord, save me," but over the dark, tumul- 
tuous waves, into the arms of Jesus, that were wait- 
ing to receive him, he would have gone in safety. 

Peter, being a fisherman, knew how to swim. In 
one instance we are told that "he girded his fisher- 
raan's coat about him, and cast himself into the sea." 
But a man may be a good swimmer in smooth water, 
and yet be unable to keep himself afloat in a storm. 
When he saw tlie wind boisterous, he was afraid. 
He began to sink, and would have sunk, had not a 
powerful arm been stretched out at that moment to 
save him. And then, finding himself sinking be- 
neath the stormy waves, he cries, " Lord, save me ; 
and immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and 
caught him." 

" thou of little faith.'' He does not accuse him 
of having no faith, and yet his faith was not sufficient. 

''And when they v^ere come into the ship, the wind 
ceased'' John adds to this, "And immediately the 



392 



THE LORD S MIEACLES. 



ship was at the land whither they went." Now, 
notice, as soon as Jesus was in the ship it was calm, 
and the twenty or thirty furlongs whicli they had 
yet to go were accomplished immediately, altliough 
they had been up to this point toiling the greater 
part of the night against a contrary wind. Now, I 
wisli you to notice tliat a double lesson is here 
tauglit, or rather the sanje lesson is i-epeated, pre- 
sented to us in two different fornjs, that of tlie sliip 
itself, and of Peter. This is tlie same lesson that 
we liave been studying all through the Old Testa- 
ment. Peter starts out boldly in his own strength, 
walks well foi' a time, and then sinks; sinking, an 
almighty arm saves him. The ship starts out upon 
a calm sea, but soon a storm arises. By their own 
personal effort they cannot bring her to land ; but 
when their own strength is exhausted, the Lord 
Jesus appears. The storm is hushed, and the ship 
is immediately at the end of her journey. 

Israel, well drilled under Moses and Joshua, starts 
out bravely upon the wide sea of the pagan world. 
Nobly those ancient mariners, whose names are re- 
corded in the history of Israel from Joshua to John 
the Baptist, toil to keep the law. They labor to 
keep the law, and by the law to gain the promised 
haven; but "by the law shall no flesh be justified." 
But when Ciiristin the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, 
came into the storm-tossed ship, there was a calm, 
and they were at once carried into the kingdom of 
God, without any effort of their own. As is the 
Jewish nation, so is the individual. As is the ship 
of Christ, so is the disciple. He starts out boldly 



HEALmG A BLIND MAN. 393 

from the sliip of family restraint in winch he spent 
his childhood years, and for a sliort distance he 
walks calml}' over the world's great sea of doubt, 
and trusting himself in his own strength to keep 
the law, feels secure; but wlien ]ie sees the stormy 
waves of passion which surround him, and the power 
the prince of the air has over the winds of false doc- 
trine, lie finds his own strengtli inadequate to the 
terrible ordeal, his faith begins to waver, and he 
cries, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" 

And when all human power has failed, when he 
has learned that he cannot keep the law by human 
strength, then a supernatural, a divine hand is 
stretched through the darkness, rescuing him from 
the world's ruin, and making him walk safely by his 
risen Lord, in peace, and in happiness and safety. 
May we all learn to trust Him wlio saved Peter 
from a watery grave, that He may save us from the 
powers of hell. 



CHRIST HEALIISrG A BLIISTD MAN. 

"Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: 
but now ye say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth." — John 
ix. 41. 

Right in the midst of persecution we find Jesus 
doing good. The last verse of the eiglitli chapter 
tells us that the Jews took up stones to cast at Him, 
and now we find Him healing a blind man. "And 
^s Jesus passed by, He saw a man whicli was blind 



394 THE lord's miracles. 

from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, say- 
ing, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, 
that lie was born blind?" (Verses 1-2.) 

It appears to have been very generally known 
that this man had been blind from his birth. 
Whether the disciples had knowm this man for a 
long time, or whether some one had lately told 
them, they appear to be familiar with the fact. It 
is a vevy strange qnestion which the disciples ask 
onr Lord here. They had been tanght, no doubt, 
from infancy to connect sin and suffering together 
as cause and result, and now they find themselves 
greatl}^ puzzled to make an application in tliis case. 
If this man was born blind because his parents 
sinned, then the Scriptures do not speak the truth., 
whicli tell us that the child shall not be punished 
for the fatlier's sins. Then how could this man sin 
before he was born ? Some have supposed that 
they thought that the man was punished beforehand 
for some sin that he would commit in after years. 
Others thought that the Jews believed in a transmi- 
gration of souls, and that tliis man's soul had sinned 
while in some former state or body, and that he was 
now being punished for it. The fact is, the disciples 
were laboring under an ei'ror in supposing that phy- 
sical suffering was the result of sin. This error is 
universally prevalent everywhere to-day, although 
Christ on this occasion declared against it. 

'■'' Jesus ansivered^ Neitlier hath this man sinned, 
nor his parents, hut that the v:orks of God should he 
tnade manifest iri him^ Here we have the solution 
of the whole difficulty. It was neither this man's 



HEALING A BLIND MAN. 395 

sins, nor those of bis parents, tliat had made him 
blind, but that the works of God should be made 
manifest in him. A sinful nature he had inherited 
from Adam, like all the rest of us, but that sinful 
nature had not deprived him of sight any more than 
it had Peter, James, or John. As far as this was 
concerned, tliey were all on a level, and it was no per- 
sonal sin that had made him blind. True, he was 
different from otliers in being born into a more severe 
state of suffering, but then in His own good time God 
will manifest His works in liim, and with equal jus- 
tice make all things right in the end. 

^^ I must work the works of Him that sent Me^ 
while it is day ; the night corneth when no man can 
work. As long as I am in the worlds I am the 
Light of the world.^^ No right meaning can be 
gained from these words, unless we look upon Christ 
in His proper mission while in the flesh, that of a 
true gospel minister. To-dav is the day of His la- 
bor — His true work-day ; soon the hour will come 
when He will be put to death, and then this peculiar 
mission will cease. In the language here used. He 
speaks not only for Himself, but for every minister 
of the gospel. He must work while it is day, for 
the niojht comcth when His mission must cease. As 
Christ is the Light of the world, His ministers are a 
reflection of that light — a light upon a candlestick, 
to give light to others ; a city set upon a hill, whiclj 
cannot l)e hid. 

" When He had thus sjpoken^ He sjpat on the ground^ 
and made clay of the spittle^ and He anointed the 
eyes of the hlind man with the clayP Why clay and 



396 THE lord's miracles. 

spittle ? Wh}^ not some other element ? The verses 
whicli precede this undoubtedly refer to the gospel 
ministry, and this must be a continuance of the same. 
The spittle would lead one to suppose that something 
was indicated as proceeding from tlie minister's 
jyionth — his words, his teachings, liis counsel, instruc- 
tion and advice. This mixed with clay. Clay is a 
type of that which is carnal, earthy, from which 
man's body was formed. A plaster of this kind ap- 
plied to a blind man's eyes would only increase tlie 
difficulty; such is the case witli the old covenant. 

This would have been our condition had we no 
more than Moses. Moses alone is but a plaster of 
clay and saliva to blind eyes, and the more we put 
on the deeper our sin grows, the darker the night 
within. 

''A7id said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Si- 
loam,, {v)hich is hy interpretation. Sent.) He went 
his ivay, therefore, and washed, and came seeing^ 
A celebrated commentator (Olshausen) has com- 
mitted a very strange error in commenting on this 
verse. He says that Clirist was not the one sent, 
but the sender. The blind man was the one sent. 
No no, no ! Clirist Himself is the one sent of God, 
the true Siloam to wash all sin from blind eyes. Si- 
loam and Shiloh are all the same. Those who tell 
us that there is no typical meaning attached to these 
miracles, will please tell us why the interpretation of 
the word " Siloam " is here given ? As Trench says, 
it would do very well in a lexicon, but not in a gos- 
pel, unless it has a special significance. 

Blind in sin, the first teachings we receive only re- 



HEALING A BLIND MAN. 397 

veal to us oar sad condition, only covering our eyes up 
with a plaster of clay ; but we wash in Shiloli, that 
living fountain, Clirist, and behold, our eyes are 
opened. That Christ is tlie one sent is clearly in- 
dicated in His name, "Shiloh," as well as in the 
words of Paul, who calls Him "the Apostle of our 
profession," (Heb. iii. 1,) the word "apostle" mean- 
ing " one sent." He came to open blind eyes, to re- 
veal the light of Divine truth, the truth of God's 
mercy and love. Moses did not. He clothed tlie 
Almighty wdth clouds and thick darkness ; received 
His commandments to men from amidst thunder and 
flames, and revealed hardly more than His attributes 
of justice and immutability — the very attributes that 
discourage most the hopes of men. So, a great 
commentator, like Olshausen, though learned and 
scholarly, may greatly err. How well for us that 
the Bible was not written by men uninspired l)y the 
Spirit of God. How often would they have con- 
founded the great truths upon which our salvation is 
based, making Christ the sender, rather than the sent 
of God — teaching errors as grave as if they made 
the sun to rise in the West and set in the East. 

This man now goes as directed, washes in the pool 
of Siloam; his eyes are opened, and he returns to liis 
own house ; but not to remain long in the quiet, 
peaceful enjoyment of this new blessing. Satan 
wants to see us unhappy, and if we are not so, he 
will soon seek the means to make us so, and, as is 
often the case, using our own neiglibors as the in- 
struments. 

This man's neighbors took him to the Pharisees, 



398 THE lord's miracles. 

with what object in view we are not told. It may 
have been to prove that Jesus was the Christ, or it 
may have been with an entirely opposite purpose in 
view. This miracle was done on the Sabbath day. 
There was at once a division among them, part 
claiming that if He were a sinner, He could do no 
such miracle, and part claiming that no holy person 
would do such a miracle on the Sabbath day. That 
He opened tliis man's eyes on the Sabbath day was 
proof to tliem that the miracle was from Satan, and 
not from God. But they were willingly ignorant 
of tlie great truth that Clirist was superior to the 
law. Indeed, He was the Autlior of tlie law. His 
act, therefore, was an interpretation of the law, and 
not a violation of it. As water washes away clay, 
so the life and teachings of Clirist clear away the 
mysteries that obscure the law of Moses. 

'* They say unto the hlind man again^ What sayest 
thou of Hhn, that lie hath opened thine eyes f He 
said, lie is a Prophet.''^ Tliis should be, " What say- 
est thou of IIim,in that He hath opened thine eyes?" 
that is, about this matter of having opened thine 
eyes. 

'^ But the Jexns did not believe concerning him. that 
he had heen hlind and received his sight, until they 
ccdled the jx^rents of hint that had received his sights 
Then he relates the whole affair to tliem. No doubt 
they watched him closely, hoping to find some proof 
that it was done by Satanic agency. First, they will 
not believe that he was born blind, and they call his 
parents; but the result is that they only prove that 
he was born blind. The parents are not willing to 



HEALING A BLIND MAN. 399 

sa}^ anytliing about his recovering his siglit. They 
were afraid that, if tliej told the truth, they 
would be excommunicated from the synagogue, and 
tliat would cut them off fi'om their friends and rela- 
tive's about as much as it would if they had incurred 
some bodily defilement, such as leprosy; consequently 
they answer, " Our son is of age, ask him." Proba- 
bly, in the examination of the parents they had sent 
the son out, and now they recall him for a cross 
questioning; and like some unscrupulous lawyers, 
pretend that they have information which they do 
not possess, but expect to obtain from the witness 
by this false pretense. 

" Then again called they the man that loas hlind, 
and said unto hira^ Give God the praise^ we laww 
that this man is a sin?ier.^'' "Give God the praise" 
rather leads astray. It does not mean, give God the 
praise, and not this man Jesus; but it means, make 
an open confession to God ; conceal nothing, for fear 
of God's displeasure. (Josh. vii. 19.) 

They now have an important piece of information. 
*'We know that this man is a sinner." No doubt 
the witness thought to himself, "Lying scoundrels, 
you know nothing about it; but one thing I know, 
I was born blind, and now I see ;" and this he tells 
them. Draw what inference you choose from this. 
"Then said they to him again. What did He to thee? 
How opened He thine ej^es? He answered them, I 
have told you already, and ye did not hear, where- 
fore would ye hear it again ? Will ye also be His 
disciples?" 

The man is now beginning to get tired of this 



400 THE lord's miracles. 

nonsense. "I have told jon once, wh}' should I 
tell you again ? If I eonvince you, will you be- 
come Plrs disciples?" No; they did not want to be 
convinced. That was the last tiling in the world. 
A string of solid argument that would reach from 
here to the moon would not convince them. What 
they wanted, and the only tiling they wanted, was 
something that would convict and condemn Jesus. 

^' Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art His 
disciple, hut we are Moses' disciples. We knov) that 
God spake unto Moses, as for this fellow we know 
not from whence he is.'*'' Tliey do not know from 
whence he is. Then why did they say they did? 
They had just said we know that this man is a sin- 
ner, as much as to say we know that he is from be- 
neath, and now they confess that they know nothing 
about it. 

^' The man answered and said unto them. Why, 
herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from 
lohence lie is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes. 
Noio we know that God heareth not sinners ; hut if 
any man he a loorshipper of God, and doeth His 
will, him He heareth. Since the world hegan was it 
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was 
horn hlind. If this man were not of God, He could 
do nothing^ The great difficulty appears to be just 
this: The Jews had despised this man, and here a 
wonderful miracle had been performed, that could 
alone be done by divine agency, and on the Sabbath 
day. Now they must accept one of the two horns of 
a dilemma: acknowledge Him Lord of the Sabbath 
day, or declare that the miracle was performed by 



HEALING A BLIND MAN. 401 

the power of Beelzebub. If the former is true, their 
loftj pride will have a fall like that of Lucifer. 

'^They answered and said unto hhn, Thou wast 
altogether horn in sins, and dost thou teach us f And 
they cast him outP Before, they would not believe 
that he w-as born blind. Now thej^ suddenly believe 
that he was ; for it is from that fact that they learn 
tliat he was altogetlier born in sins. And should a 
sinner teach them? Wliat, teach these holy liars? 
The fact is, they did not believe the truth. They 
did not know it, and they did not want to know it. 

'^ Jesus heard that they cast hhn out; and when 
He had' found hhn, He said unto him, Dost thou be- 
lieve on the Son of God? He ansivered and said. 
Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him f 
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, 
and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, 
Lord, L believe. And he icorshipped Him.''^ The 
man now learns who his benefactor is — the Lord ot 
the Sabbath day. 

''^ A?id Jesus said. For judgment L am come into 
this icorld, that they which see not might see, and 
that they which see might be made blind. And some 
of the Pharisees ichich were with Him heard these 
words, and said unto Him, Are we blind also ? Jesus 
said unto them, Lf ye were blind, ye should have no 
sin ; but novj ye say. We see, therefore your sin re- 
mainethr Had they not been blind tljey would 
have seen Christ's superiority to Moses. They 
were not Moses' disciples. 



402 THE lord's miracles. 



THE SABBATH DAY.— CHRIST KESTOR- 
ING THE WITHERED HAND. 

"And He entered again into the synagogue ; and there was a man 
there which had a withered hand. And they watched Him, 
whether He would heal him on the Sabbath day ; that they 
might accuse Him. And He saith unto the man which had the 
withered hand, Stand forth. And He saith unto them, Is it 
lawful to do ^ood on the Sabbath daj-s, or to do evil ? to save 
life, or to kill ? But they held their peace. And when He had 
looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the 
hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth 
thine hand. And he stretched it out : and his hand was re- 
stored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and 
straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how 
they might destroy Him." — Mark iii. 1-6. 

This miracle was performed on the Sabbath day. 
In fact, many of Christ's miracles were performed 
on the Sabbath. It is distinctly recorded of seven 
of Christ's miracles that He performed them on the 
Sabbath day. and there are intimations that njany 
more were performed on this day. 

This miracle follows immediately upon the accusa- 
tion that the Pharisees l)rought against Jesus because 
His disciples liad gathered, and probably roasted, 
(according to the Eastern custom,) the green ears 
of wheat on the Sabbath, as recorded in Matthew xii. 
1-2: "At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day 
through the corn; and His disciples were an 
hungei'ed, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and 
to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said 
unto Him, Behold, Thy disciples do that which is 
not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day." They did 
not complain that He had invaded some one's pro- 



RESTORING THE WITHERED HAND. 403 

pertj, because tliis was permitted bj the law. The 
Mosaic law allowed a man to go into another man's 
field and eat all he wanted, but would not allow liim 
to tlirust in his sickle. He could go into his vine- 
3^ard and eat as many grapes as he pleased, but he 
must carry none away. But tliey complained that 
the disciples had l)roken the Sabbath day in satisf}'- 
ing their own hunger. These black-hearted scoun- 
drels themselves were tlie ones that had broken tlie 
Sabbath d'ci}\ Christ and His disciples were among 
tliem, curing the sick, liealing the lame, and opening 
tlie eyes of the blind, and instead of affording them 
a good supply of provisions in return for their be- 
nevolent work, they let them starve until they are 
compelled to gather and make a meal of the new 
wheat, and tlien they complain to Christ that His 
disciples had broken the Sabbath day. On this 
occasion Jesus presents three arguments, derived 
from the Scriptures, to prove that tliere is already a 
higher law than that written on the tables of stone.. 
First, one is in the Mosaic economy itself. The 
Sabbath day must give way to circumcision. If a 
child is born on the Sabbath day, on a Sabbath day 
it must be circumcised. Second, David partook of 
the shew bread, which was only lawful for the 
priests to eat. Here the claims of nature do away 
with the Levitical law. To satisfy hunger, David 
ate the shew-bread. Third, The priests at the altar 
fulfil their duties on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is 
inferior to, and must yield to the temple service. 
That of least importance must yield to the greater. 
The observance of the Sabbath day, even .under the 



404: THE lord's MIKACLKS. 

Old Covenant economy, is inferior to the temple 
service. In IVict, the non-observance of the latter 
v^^ould be the breaking of the former. 

"Bat He said unto them, Have ye not read what 
David did when he was an hungered, and they that 
were with him; liow he entered into the house of 
God, and did eat the shew-bread, which was not lawful 
for him to eat, neither for them wdiich were with 
him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read 
in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests 
in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are l)lame- 
less? But I say unto you, that in this place is one 
greater tlian the temple." (Matt. xii. 3-6.) But 
there is one here wlio is greater than the temple 
even, and if so. He must certainly be Lord of the 
Sabbath day. If He is greater than the temple, then 
He has a right to change the temple service if He 
sees tit to do so, and if it is His will, to do away 
with the Sabbath day. It was but a material temple 
that tlie Pliarisees worshipped — nothing but the 
carntd ; they could not see through and beyond a 
spiritual temple and a spiritual Sabbatli, of which 
these were but the shadow. 

'•^But if ye iiad know^n what this mcanetli, I will 
have mercy and not sacrihce, ye would not have con- 
demned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord, 
even of the Sabbath day." (Matt. xii. 7-8.) The 
passage, '*/ vMl have mercy, and not sacrifice^^ is 
not understood as it now stands. It would read 
better if translated "I require mercy, and not sacri- 
£ce." It is mercy that I want; your sacrifices are 
an abomination to Me. While you refuse to show 



RESTORING THE WITHERED HAND. 405 

mercy to Me and Mine, your sacrifices are more 
polluting to Me than swine's flesh. Wliile your 
hearts are so far from Me, I would ratlier have tlie 
breath of serpents and reptiles than the blood of your 
bulls and goats. If ye had known what God requires 
at your hands, ye would not have condemned the 
innocent. 

And then He adds, according to Mark, "The 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
Sabbath ; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of 
the Sabbath." The Sabbath was instituted to bless 
man, and is subject to uian's representative. This 
language may be applied to the whole law. The 
law was made for man. Trench on the Miracles 
says: "The law was made for man, and not man for 
the law. Man is the end, and the ordinance of the 
law the means. Man was not made to the end that 
he might observe these, but these were given that 
they might bless man — that thej might train and 
discipline him till he should be ready to serve God 
from tlie free impulse of his spirit." (Trench on the 
Miracles, page 255.) 

I know that Paul says that Cln-ist was made under 
the law, but then it is as man that He was under the 
law ; as man's representative He is first made under 
the law, and then He rises above tlie law, and finally 
above all principalities and powers, and puts them 
under His feet. The law is man's school- master to 
bring him to Christ in regeneration, but after that, 
man's companion and counsellor. 

Mark iii. 1-3: '^And He entered again mto the 
synagogue ; and there vms a man there which had a 



^06 THE lord's miracles. 

withered hand. And they watched Hhn^ whether He 
would, heal him on the Sabbath day., that they might 
accuse Him, And He saith unto the 'man which had 
the withered hand., Stand forthP I understand, 
thongli I know not how true it is, that in eastern 
countries there is a disease which is occasionally met 
with, in which a limb — an arm or a leg — may become 
perfectly useless, lose all feeling, as in paralysis, and 
then dry up, nothing l)ut skin and bone remaining, 
and then perfectly dead. No art of man can heal 
tliis disease. It' it is true that this disease exists, 
then this man suffered with it. Now, if Christ had 
power to cure tliis man, then He liad power to re- 
store life to a dead man, and if so, even to a dead 
body, and was undoubtedly Lord of life and death. 
I do not deny that some of the ancient prophets as- 
sisted in raising the dead, but they never claimed 
this power as inherent in themselves. They ever 
attributed this power to God alone. Christ claims 
this power in Himself; and laying claim to it either 
proved Him divine, or it proved Him an imposter. 
No false prophet ever did or ever could claim the 
power openlj^ and publicly to restore life to a dead 
limb. The whole undouljted testimony in this case 
was in favor of the divinity of Christ, and conse- 
quently prove Him Lord of the Sabbath day, with 
an undoubted right to do on that day whatsoever He 
chose to do. 

'"'And He saith unto thcm^ Is it lawful to do 
good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil f to save life 
or to kill f But they held their peace. And when 
He had looked round about on them with anger ^ be- 



RESTORING THE WITHERED HAND. 407 

ing grieved for the hardness of their hearts^ He saith 
unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he 
stretched it out, and his hand loas restored whole as 
the other."' Matthew adds another question which 
Jesus asked them that Mark has omitted: ''And 
behold, there was a man which had his hand with- 
ered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to 
heal on the Sabbath days? tliat they might accuse 
Him. And He said unto them. What man shall 
there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and 
if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, wall he not 
lay hold on it and lift it out? How^ much, then, is 
a man better tlian a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful 
to do well on the Sabbath days. Then saith He to 
the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched 
it forth, and it was restored whole like as the otlier." 
(Matt. xii. 10-13.) 

The Mosaic law never prohibited works of mercy 
on tlie Sabbath day. The Pharisees had mistaken 
the whole drift of the Mosaic law. They professed 
to be disciples of Moses, and yet were as ignorant of 
Moses as are the disciples of Confucius. Moses' 
law reached no farther than the caraal man, outside 
of that it was no more binding than the laws of 
Lycurgus are upon American citizens. The laws of 
Moses are binding upon self, made to restrain self 
to rule self to enslave self, and the moment that we 
go out of self, to engage in works of mercy, Moses' 
law, like the two tables of stone that he hurled 
against the rocky sides of Sinai, falls shattered to 
atoms. When we become wholly absorbed in God's 
work and kingdom, Mount Sion arises in majestic 



408 THE lord's miracles. 

grandeur between us and Sinai, and the latter is 
hidden from our view for ever. The regenerated 
sinner must suffer the weakness of the flesh, the 
carnal nature, in which this selfishness exists; but 
the power of the law is broken, and can no longer 
be felt, except as we abandon tlie spirit and incline 
to the flesh, in which case tlie law becomes a coun- 
sellor; but if we walk in the Spirit, we are free from 
the law. " Christ looked upon tliem witli anger, be- 
ing grieved for the hardness of their hearts." A 
just indignation against wickedness is no sin. Pre- 
tending to be Moses' disciples, they had become tlie 
basest and vilest of idolaters. They had made an 
idol of Moses' law, and bowing to tliat idol tliey 
were worshipping it in the very presence, and un- 
der the just indignation, of the Son of God. May 
we ever entertain a just appreciation of Moses' law, 
but oh I may wc never so idolize that law as to be 
unable to recognize the Son of God by His words 
and works. The miracle being performed, Luke 
tells HS that "they were filled with madness." They 
were confounded and brought to shame. Convinced, 
but not converted, they were of the same opinion 
still. No power on earth could convert such men. 

''And the Pharisees y:ent forth^ and straightway 
took counsel with the Her odians against Him, how they 
might destroy Him.'''' The Herodians were represen- 
tatives of theE-oman empire, and as such symbolical of 
the agencies of the empire of Satan. They are willing 
to sell themselves to their swine-eating, dogs-loving 
enemies, if they can by so doing destroy the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Herod and Pilate are enemies till 



THE TEN LEPERS. 409 

Christ is to be condemned. But when tlie Savior 
of the world is on trial, Jew and Gentile can readily 
join hands in condetnning Him. A nominal Chris- 
tian will burn a heretic as readily as a pagan will a 
Christian. Those who love not the Lord Jesus 
Christ are at heart one with Satan's kingdom, al- 
though for the sake of respectability, they may even 
pretend to be Christians in a Christian land ; but let 
the hour of persecution come, let Christ and Chris- 
tianity be phiced upon trial in the prisoner's box, and 
we at once find them ranged w^ith the enemies of the 
cross. So it was in the time of the Pharisees, and 
so it is to-day, and so it will be to the end of time. 



CHEIST AND THE TEN LEPERS. 

"And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed 
through the midst of Samaria and Gahlee. And as He entered 
into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, 
which stood afar off : and they lifted up their voices and said, 
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw them, He 
said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it 
came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one 
of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with 
a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, 
giving Him thanks : and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus an- 
swering said, Were there not ten cleansed ? but where are the 
nine ? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, 
save this stranger. And He said unto Him, Arise, go thy way : 

thy faith hath made thee whole." — Luke xvii. 11-19. 

• 
Three times a year all the males of the nation of 

Israel were required to present themselves at the 

temple of Jerusalem. At the time of our Savior, 

the kingdom of Israel was divided into three parts: 

18 



4l0 THE lord's MlfeACLt:S. 

Judea, Saraaria,'[und Galilee. The people of Sama- 
ria were a sort of mongrel Jews. Half Jew and half 
pagan, they were not permitted to assemble with the 
other Jews in Jerusalem, and as a natural conse- 
quence had ^built for themselves a temple in Mount 
Gerizim. This naturally caused cri-eat trouble to tlie 
people in Galilee, who had to pass tlirough Samaria 
in order to get to Jerusalem. As people in those 
times travelled mostly on foot, probably the most 
public roads through Samaria would be tilled at the 
time of these feasts with people on their way to Jer- 
usalem, either travelling alone or in companies. On 
these journeys they usually engaged in singing the 
Psalms of David — psalms of degrees. We can readily 
understand the animosity that would naturally be 
excited in the minds of the Samaritans on seeing a 
people that tlie}^ looked upon as their enemies trav- 
elling thus, perhaps for several days at a time, three 
seasons in the year, through their country, singing 
religious songs, and turning their backs upon their 
temple in Mount Gerizim. This animosity grew so 
strong that they not only had no dealings with the 
Jews, as the New Testament tells us, but they often 
committed acts of open violence upon the Galileans, 
and Josephus records an instance in which they 
massacred many of them. These acts of violence 
became so frequent that many of the Galileans pre- 
ferred to cross the Jordan and pass down the east 
side of it, then re-cross it at Jericho, thus making 
a great detour around in order to avoid passing 
through Samaria. But it appears that Jesus, instead 
of avoiding the danger by taking the longer route. 



THE TEN LEPERS. 411 

passed tliroiigh Samaria with His disciples on His 
way to Jerusalem. 

'''A?id it came to pass^ as He went to Jerusalem, 
that He passed through the midst of Samaria and- 
Galilee. And^ as He entered into a cet'tain village, 
there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood 
afar off : and they lifted up their voices and said, 
Jesus, Master, have mercy on iis.'''' Common misery 
had drawn these men together. If these men had 
liad their health, they would have been enemies; 
for we read that one was a Samaritan. Men may 
be enemies to each other in prosperity, but when 
they all alike fall into disgrace and misery, the 
petty animosities which divide them are all for- 
gotten — sin makes them all equal. According: to 
tlie law of Moses, these lepers stood afar off. They, 
no doubt, had lieard of Jesus. The wonderful mir- 
acles that He had performed had been published 
throughout the land. Probably knowing that He 
had power to cure the leprosy, tliey cry, "Master, 
have mercy on us ! " 

^'And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go 
shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to 
pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.''^ An 
extraordinary amount of faith was required here. 
Christ did not call these lepers to Him, and lay His 
hands upon them and pronounce tliem cured ; but He 
sent them away to tlie priests, whose office was, not 
to cure, but to pronounce them clean when they 
were cured, and perform for them tlie ceremonies 
which would again admit them to the privileges of 
their nation. If they had presented themselves to 



412 THE loed's miracles. 

the priests as they were, he would unclovibtedly have 
turned tliem away ; and the very fact that they 
started off on this mission shows that they expected 
to be healed on the waj^ And as tlieir faith was, so 
it was done unto them. "As they went, they were 
cleansed." 

''And one of them, when he saw th(.U he was healed^ 
turned hack, and vnih a loud voice glorified God, and 
fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks : 
and he loas a Samaritan''' Leprosy is a disease of 
the skin. Sometimes the whole body will be covered 
with sores; sometimes only a portion of the body will 
be thus affected. It causes the skin to look white, 
like snow, and is a very loatlisome, contagious dis- 
ease. When a person is found to have this disease, 
he is made to live by himself, or with others who are 
likewise its unfortunate victims. Some have sup- 
posed that this Samaritan had already been to tlie 
temple and offered the customary sacrifice, but of 
that there is no evidence. The language of the text 
would rather indicate tliat he turned back imme- 
diately on finding himself healed of so loathsome a 
disease. 

Altliougli the Samaritans were looked upon by 
tlie other Jews as so many Gentiles, yet I think that 
in our Savior's time there was no prohibition against 
any Samaritan taking part in all tlie ceremonies and 
services of the Jews, if he wished to do so. In fact, 
that he sliould join with the otlier nine in going to 
the temple to pass through the usual ceremonies of 
purification, I think proves that no Samaritan would 
be forbidden entrance to the temple, provided he 



THE TEN LEPERS. 413 

came in the leo'itiniate way, i. e., accordino; to the 
requirements of the Mosaic law. 

''A?id Jesus anstmring said^ Were there not ten 
cleansed? hut where are the nine? There are not 
found that returneih to give glory to God, save this 
stranger. And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way, 
thy faith hath made thee v^hole^ (Vs. 17-19.) Oh, 
the ungrateful human heart! Ten were healed of 
a loathsome disease, but only one of the ten returns 
to give thanks for the blessing he had received; and 
that one is rather the representative of the Gentile 
world, wliile the ungrateful nine belong to the peo- 
ple of God, to whom the oracles of God had been 
given. We read tliis account, and we think it 
strange that these nine lepers should be so ungrate- 
ful, but they represent fully nine-tenths of the hu 
man race. 

The greatest obstacle that the missionary has to 
encounter is the ingratitude of the people whom he 
is endeavouring to bring to a knowledge of a Savior. 
Let a missionary go into some town in Mexico, and 
the people will flock around him, and beg of him to 
send them a preacher; the preacher sent, they then 
beg for a church; the church built, they beg for a 
school; and it must be a free school, for not one 
red cent will they pay to support either church, min- 
ister or teacher; and then they will turn around and 
curse you to your face because you do not send them 
bread and clothing to keep them in idleness. 

Sad as this picture is, I have not overdrawn it; 
nor is this an isolated case. It was my daily expe- 
rience for over five years. And did I choose to oc- 



414: THE lord's miracles. 

cupj jour time, I could recount many incidents to 
prove this. In tact, acts of ingratitude were of daily 
occurrence. 

But this want of ingratitude is not confined to tlie 
missionary field. We find it in the world, and we 
find it in the Church. 

We find it in the world. The whole race of Adam 
is groaning under the terrible leprosy of ein. A cure 
has been prepared, a sacrifice lias been offered, that 
will cleanse tliis filthy disease. Jesus Christ, the 
only begotten Son of God, has suffered tlie terrible 
death of the cross for sinners. And oh ! how many 
of the millions of our race liave sufficient gratitude 
to acknowledge Him as their Savior! Present them 
with the gospel — the glad news of cleansing blood — 
and like filtliy swine they will trample it under their 
feet, and turn and rend you. 

We find it in the Church. The sinner, awakened 
by a terrible sense of sin, which, like a devouring 
leprosy, is carrying him down, not to the grave, but 
even far lower than the grave, feels his need of a 
Savior. It may be that, like the nine Jews, he has 
been brought up witliin the shade of Jerusalem's 
temple, and knows all about the gospel plan of sal- 
vation, butjtill now has never felt the need of it; or 
it may be that, like the Samaritan, he has had his 
early training within sight of the temple npon Mt. 
Gerizim, in tlie shade of a false religion, and knows 
but very little about God's word ; yet some keen 
shaft has pierced his breast, and suddenly i-evealed 
to his spiritual vision the terrible deformity within; 
and in all the acronv of a lost soul sinking into end- 



THE TEN LEPERS. 



415 



less despair, he cries out, "Master, have mercy on 
us." The Savior is passing by, as He ever is, in 
search ol tlie lost sheep of the house of Israel, and 
at once tells him how he may be saved. He at once 
starts off in hot haste upon the journey; and as he 
goes, he feels his sins forgiven, and we may say at 
once he is a true convert. He will turn and follow 
Christ as a disciple, and return Him thanks by 
spending his whole life in His service! Nothing of 
the kind ; he merely fulfils the law's demands, and 
no more. He shows himself to the priest in the 
temple, and offers the necessary sacrifice, and goes 
through the usual ceremonies of cleansing; and 
what more? — the rest of his life is a blank; he is 
never heard from again. Do you know w^hat this 
means? He joins the Church; gets a pew, and 
every Lord's day shows himself to his minister; he 
pays his sacrifice of one dollar, two dollars, or it 
may be five, or even ten dollars, for preaching; has 
been baptized, and partakes of the communion; and 
beyond that he is of no more service to Christ's 
kingdom than lie would be if buried at the bottom 
of the sea. He never offers a prayer in public; he 
never teaches a child in the Sunday-school; never 
speaks to his neighbor about his soul's salvation ; 
never reads or loans a religious book; never con- 
tributes to any benevolent enterprise; vegetates 
from year to year, without ever thinking that he has 
been un "grateful to that Savior. 



416 THE lord's mieacles. 

THE SYROPHENICIAN WOMAN. 

'* Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre 
and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the 
same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, 
O Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed 
with a devil. But He answered her not a word. And His dis- 
ciples came and besought Him saying, Send her away ; for she 
crieth after us. But He answered and said, I am not sent but 
uuto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and 
worshipped Him, saying. Lord, help me. But He answered 
and said. It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to 
cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat 
of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus 
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith : be 
it Tinto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made 
whole from that very hour,"— Matt. xv. 21-28. 

We Iiavo no evidence in the Scriptures that Christ, 
during His public ministry, ever went out of the 
land of Canaan. In His childhood, it is true, He 
was carried by His parents down into Egypt. The 
only passage that would afford any indication that 
He went out of Canaan during His pu])lic ministry 
is now before us; and I think, if we examine it close- 
ly, we will find that it affords none. 

" Then Jesus went thence^ and departed into the 
coasts of Tyre and SidonP The word " coasts" here 
means that portion of country bordering on the fron- 
tier. There is no evidence that He crossed over the 
boundary line into Tyre and Sidon. That the word 
"coasts" here means the frontier, is evident from 
the fact that the Canaanitish woman "came out of 
the same coast." "And, behold, a woman of Ca- 
naan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto 
Him, saying. Have mercy on me, O Lord. Tiiou Son 



THE SYKOPHENICIAN AVOMAN. 417 

of David; my dangliter is grievously vexed witli a 
devil." That is, she came out from her side of the 
line over into the land of Canaan, both sides being 
called the coasts. That He should say, ^^ I avi not 
sent hut unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel^'' 
appears to me to be abundant proof that He did not 
cross over into the land of Tja-e and Sidon. 

Mark says, ''And would have no man know it; 
but He could not be liid," upon which Trench beau- 
tifully comments, that He was like precious oint- 
ment, whicli cannot be hid, but betrayeth its presence 
wherever it may be. 

'^ And, behold, a wo7nan of Canaan came out of 
the same coasts, and cried unto Sim, saying. Have 
mercy on m-e, Lord, Thou Son of David, my 
daughter is grievously vexed with a devilP Mat- 
thew calls her a woman of Canaan, to indicate, no 
doubt, that she belonged to that ancient race which 
had been doomed to destruction, but some of w^hicli 
had escaped the devouring sword of Joshua, and 
through all ages down to Christ's time had been a 
thorn in the side of Israel. Mark calls her " a Greek, 
a Syrophenician," indicating probably that she spoke 
the Greek language, and was a native of Phoenicia, 
in Syria. 

Althongli this woman was a Gentile pagan, yet 
she appears to have a much clearer view of the mis- 
sion and claims of the Messiah tlian many of His 
own brethren did. She calls Him " Lord," and " Son 
of David," recognizing His divine mission and His 
Messiahship, as King of Israel. 

''''But He answered her not a word. And His dis- 



4:18 THE lord's MIRACLES. 

ciples came and besought Ilim^ saying. Send her away, 
for she crieth after tis^ I am ratlier inclined to 
think, from tlie answer which Christ gave His dis- 
ciples, that tliey expected that He would grant her 
request. Her continued crying had become an an- 
noyance to them, and was doubtless attracting at- 
tention. 

Tliis poor, despised Sjn-oplienician does not find 
our Savior, at first, the kind, benevolent, compas- 
sionate healer of tlie sick and afflicted that others 
had found Him. For a time He remains silent, and 
then insinuates that she is a Canaanitisli dog, thus 
making her feel tlie wliole weight of ignorance and 
reproach that the Jews had for ages cast upon her 
people. But I tliink tlie principal object our Savior 
had in view was to teach His disciples a wholesome 
lesson, that even of these Canaanitisli dogs God 
could raise up seed unto Abraham. 

''''But He answered and said, I am not sent hut 
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In what 
sense can it be said that Christ was sent only to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel? Does He not say 
Himself to the believers in Israel, "Other sheep I 
have, which are not of this fold ; them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall 
be one fold and one Shepherd." Has not all pro- 
phecy pointed forward to Him in whom all nations 
should be blessed? — to Him in whom the Gentiles 
should trust? — who should be a Light to lighten the 
Gentiles? How is it, then, that He is "sent only 
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"? 

There can be no difficulty about this question if 



THE SYROPHENTCIAN WOMAN. 419 

we take into consideration that Christ is not speak- 
ing liere of His mission as the Savnor of the world, 
but of His mission as a gospel minister; as Paul 
sajs, "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circum- 
cision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises 
made unto the fathers." He was "a minister of the 
circumcision," that is, of the seed of Abraham, the 
house of Israel; but we are nowhere told that He 
was a gospel minister unto the Gentiles. 

" Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, 
Lord, help me. But He answered and said, It is 
not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to 
dogsP Mark says that He told her, "Let the chil- 
dren first he filled ; for it is not meet to take the 
children's bread and cast it unto dogs" — thus* indi- 
cating that the time had not jet come when the Gen- 
tiles should be invited to the Lord's table. After 
the children had been fed, then the dogs will be al- 
lowed to help themselves from — shall I say, the 
twelve b'asketsful of fragments? After the five 
thousand were fed, there were twelve basketsful re- 
maining; the disciples were commanded to gather 
them up, that nothing be wasted; so, after the chil- 
dren (the Jews) had been fed by the Master, there 
were fragments left. He said : " I have many things 
to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. How- 
beit, when He, the Spirit of truth is come. He will 
guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of 
Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall 
He speak, and He will shew you things to come." 
(John xvi. 12-13.) He left many things unsaid, but 
to the twelve apostles He entrusted these things. 



420 THE lord's miracles. 

The}' were " basketsf ul." They were inspired, and 
from tliem we have received all that was necessary 
to finish the great scheme of redemption. The 
''dogs," too, have eaten of the "fragments," for the 
Gentile world heard the message of salvation 
through these twelve apostles. 

^^And she said, 'Truths Lord ; yet the dogs eat of 
the crumbs vjhich fall from their masters' tdbleP 
Chrysostom, one of the most learned and the most 
eloquent of the Greek fathers, says tliat tlie " master " 
spoken of here is tlie Jews. I am very glad indeed 
that this great orator made a sad mistake; for if he 
spoke the trntli here, we should all be excluded from 
the kingdom of heaven. The Jews kept no dogs, 
and consequently they could eat no crumbs from a 
Jewish table. The last thing in the world that the 
Jews were willing to admit was, that the Gentiles 
should be admitted into God's family. The children 
here are the ancient Jews; the Master of the table 
is God Himself. When Christ speaks of tlie dogs 
as having a master. He at once admits the Gentiles 
into the household of God, even in the low, subor- 
dinate position of dogs, waiting for their supply 
when the children are filled. Another person would 
have been angry to have been compared to a dog, but 
this woman at once takes hold of the possibility of 
her favor being granted, and, appealing to our Lord, 
accepts the situation as it is: "Call me a dog, if 
Thou wilt; I know that the time will come when 
the Gentiles shall be favored from the Master's 
table; but in the meantime my daughter will die. 
Grant me but one crumb now. Save my daughter!" 



THE SYROPHKNICIAN WOMAN. 421 

Here I observe a point worthy of our study : God's 
dealings with tlic Gentiles. The Canaanites were 
first condemned to utter destruction. They were 
compared to useless stones, which only cumbered 
the Master's vinej^ard, and are to be gathered out 
of it and destroyed, like wild beasts of the forest. 

Now they are compared to dogs belonging to the 
master's houseliold, but not to liis family, feeding on 
tlie crumbs that fall from his table ; and in the par- 
able of the prodigal sou, I understand that tlie "hired 
servants having enough and to spare," are Gentile 
proselytes ; wliile Paul speaks of them as children 
of Abraham by faith, and sons of God through the 
gospel. 

" Then Jesus answered and said unto her^ woman, 
great is thy faith ; he it unto thee even as thou wilt. 
And her daughter was made whole from that very 
hourP Mark adds : " And wlien she was come to 
her iiouse, she found tlie devil gone out, and her 
daughter laid upon the bed." Her faitli had accom- 
plished the work. Her request was granted. Her 
daughter was cured of her malady, and, as I under- 
stand, was enjoying a calm, quiet sleep, to which she 
had been a stranger, it may be, for years. 

Trencli, on tlie Miracles, compares this woman, 
earnestly begging, praying, striving, wrestling with 
our Lord, to Jacob's night struggle at Peniel with 
the angel of the covenant. In that case it was the 
Angel of the Covenant that Jacob wrestled with, and 
in this case it is Jesus, the eternal Word, that this 
woman cried to. Jacob would not let the angel go 
until he had received a blessing, and this woman 



422 THE lord's miracles. 

would not let the Savior alone until He had granted 
her request. And both received a blessing on ac- 
count of their faith. 

But there is a dim halo be^'ond this, which Trench 
has not seen, or if he has, has not mentioned, per- 
haps not being able to grasp the whole in his litnited 
vision. Jacob was the representative of the family 
of Israel, and it was not alone upon himself, but 
upon liis family, that this blessing was to fall. Now, 
in a later age, that family has forfeited the blessing, 
and it is about to depart from them, and fall, like 
Elijah's mantle, upon the Gentile world. This wo- 
man is a representative of the pagan Gentile world, 
and her daughter is the children of this world, pos- 
sessed with a devil. The Angel of the Covenant, 
now the living Word, grants a blessing, and the Gen- 
tiles are made heirs of the promises of Abi'aham, 
they sit at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their 
right minds. 

But where are the children of the kingdom now ? 
Many shall come from the cast, and froni the west, 
and shall sit down, with Abraham and with Isaac 
and with Jacob, , and the children of the kingdom 
shall be cast out. The last book of this sacred Bible 
says, ''Without are dogs." But before leaving this 
miracle I would suggest the examination of an im- 
portant point, and one which is causing much dis- 
cussion in the Cliurch at the present time. This 
daughter had probably never heard of Jesus. In 
all probability the mother had become acquainted 
with the character and mission of the great Miracle 
Worker after her daughter had become possessed 



THE LUNATIC CHILD. 423 

with a devil. I repeat, then, that, possessed with a 
devil, the dangliter could learn nothing of Clirist. 
Christ did not visit her. Tlie gospel was not preached 
toiler; she never saw tlie Savior; probablj never 
heard of Him ; and .yet, in utter ignorance of Christ, 
she vms saved by Him from the poioer of Satan. 
This I believe to be the direct, undeviatin^ account 
as given by the inspired evangelist. If I am wrong, 
I would thank any man who would put me right. If 
I am riglit, and an}^ man's creed is not in conformity 
with this, it is no fault of mine. If language express- 
ing the reverse of tliis may be made so flexible as 
to conform with it, I shall not object. I would 
merely suggest that the creed speaks to us in lan- 
guage as clear and plain as the account of this miracle 
recorded by tlie evangelist is given in the plain Eng- 
lish of King James' Bible. Again, this girl was not 
healed on account of her own faith, but on account 
of the faith of her mother. 



THE LUKATIC CHILD. 

And when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude 
about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And 
straightway all the people, when they beheld Him, were greatly 
amazed, and running to Him saluted Him. And He asked the 
scribes. What question ye with them ? And one of the multi- 
tude answei'ed and said. Master, I have brought unto Thee my 
son, which hath a dumb spirit ; and wheresoever he taketh him, 
he teareth him ; and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, 
and pineth away ; and I spake to Thy disciples that they should 
cast him ovit ; and they could not. IJe answereth him, and 



424: THE lord's MIRACLES. 

saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you ? 
how long shall I suffer you ? bring him unto Me. And they 
brought him unto Him : and when He saw him, straightway 
the spirit tare him ; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed 
foaming. And He asked his father, How long is it ago since 
this came unto him ? And he said, Of a child. And of ttimes 
it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy 
him ; but if Thou canst do anything have compassion on us, 
and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all 
things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the 
father of the child cried out, and said with tears. Lord, I be- 
lieve ; help Thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the 
people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, say- 
ing unto him. Thou duaib and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come 
out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, 
and rent him sore, and came out of him : and he was as one 
dead ; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took 
him bj' the hand, and lifted him up ; and he arose. And when 
He was come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately. 
Why could not we cast him out ? And He said unto them, 
This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fast- 
ing."— Mark ix. U-29. 

I HAVE tried to make myself acquainted Vvith the 
latest and best information I can upon tlie subject, 
and then improve upon this as far as my own limited 
knowledge of the Scriptures will allow me to do so. 
But after all, I feel that there is a depth of meaning, 
a world of significance in the language used, which 
is beyond my power to fatliom. Especially so have 
I felt this to be the case witli the miracle before us. 
As I examine different authoi's upon the separate 
points of this miracle, I feel that they are unsatis- 
factory to my own mind, and do not bring out the 
truths intended to be cou\-eycd by our Lord in His 
teachings; and yet J feel that my own knowledge 
is too limited, my mind too weak to grasp the 



THE LUNATIC CHILD. 425 

whole lesson, and present it to mj readers in all its 
beauty. 

^^ A7}d when He came to His disci/pies^ He saw a 
great onultitude ahoiit ihem^ and the scribes question- 
ing vnth them. And straightioay all the jpeople^ 
when they heheld Him^ were greatly amazed, and 
running to Him saluted Him.'''' The event here re- 
corded occnrred immediately after our Lord's descent 
from the Mount of Transfiguration. And oli, what 
a contrast we find between the two scenes ! In the 
Mount of Transfiguration He was in the very pres- 
ence of heaven for a few moments resting on earth. 
Wh'ether the persons who there presented themselves 
to Him were really Moses and Elias, or their sub- 
lime antitypes, — the presence of the Holy Spirit 
oversliadowing Him and the favored disciples, like 
a shining cloud, or tlie suidimity of the mountain 
scenery around them, the quiet tranquillity which 
reigned there gave it a foretaste of heaven and its 
future glories. 

But He has now come down to the valley of hu- 
miliation. He finds a great multitude collected, and 
the scribes questioning or disputing, donbtless quar- 
reling with His disciples; an afflicted father griev- 
ing over the torment which his son is enduring, and 
the son racked and torn by an unclean spirit, while 
His own disciples are engaged in a silly dispute 
among themselves as to who should be greatest in 
the kingdom of heaven. A similar account of this 
occurs in the Old Testament, when Moses descended 
from the presence of God in Mount Sinai, and be- 
held the children of Israel engaged in a pagan dance 



426 THE LORD 6 MIRACLES. 

around a golden idol which their own hands liad 
made during his absence. 

The missionary, — and alas! I fear too often, the 
minister, — feels this sad change as he comes down 
from his pulpit on the Lord's day, and enters upon 
tlie duties of the week. From lioly communion 
with God in the mountain of tlie law, or in tlie 
Mount of Transfiguration, he goes through his flock, 
and finds them engaged in hot disputes, bickerings, 
backbitings, calumnies; some in affliction and trouble 
and pain, while others are grievously tormented with 
an unclean spirit, want of faith showing itself every 
wliere. 

" The people when they heheld Him were greatly 
amazedr Why were they " greatly amazed ?" The 
usual answer to this question is, that when Jesus 
came down from tlie Mount of Transfiguration that 
His countenance shone as Moses' face did when he 
came down out of Mount Sinai. Tiiis hardly ap- 
pears to me to be a satisfactory answer. I know^ of 
no intimation in the record that His face did shine. 
The apostle Paul speaks of "the glory of God being 
revealed^ in the face of Jesus;" but how? — when? 
— wliere? A reason wlii(;li has ai-isen in my own 
mind appears to me more satisfactory than this. 
Supposing that the scribes were highly elated, think- 
ing that they had gained a triumph over Jesus, in 
that He had promised His disciples " when He called 
them to give them power over unclean spirits, to 
cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, 
and all manner of disease" — "to cleanse the lepers, 
raise the dead, cast out devils," etc. (Matt. x. 1-8); 



THE LUNATIC CHILD. 427 

and now they find His disciples alone, they seize 
this opportiinitj of proving them as to whether this 
promise had been fulfilled or not. Bringing this 
sad ease to the disciples, they learn that they can do 
nothing, and at once they arrive at the conclusion 
that the promises of Jesus to His disciples were 
false, and that He had deceived them, and was no- 
thing more than an imposter. In vain the disciples 
plead that they had cast out many devils (Mark vi. 
12, 13), and liad anointed with oil many that were 
sick, and healed them. They answered, It is use- 
less to tell us what you have done. Here is an un- 
clean spirit in this man before us now, cast him out, 
if you can. As long as you cannot cast this unclean 
spirit out, we must consider your assumption as but 
proof that you are all a pack of impostors; and 
such being the case, we must consider your Master 
an impostor also. Taking advantage of Christ's ab- 
sence, they had really perverted the minds of Ilis 
disciples, and turned them against their Lord. And 
they were now telling the multitude that Christ had 
abandoned His disciples, and would never appear 
among them again; that He dare not, as they had 
fully exposed His imposition. As a natural conse- 
quence, "all the people were greatly amazed" when 
Christ appears in their midst, believing that He had 
power to perform" the miracle, although His disciples 
possessed not this power. 

Calvin tliought that the scribes were triumphant, 
arguing tliat the inability of the disciples to cast out 
the unclean spirit proved the inability of their Mas- 
ter; and I think that this reason is satisfactory, 



428 THE lord's miracles. 

while at the same time it affords lis food for future 
study. 

^' And lie ashed the scribes^ What question ye with 
ihemV What are the questions with which you 
trouble My disciples? If you have any questions to 
ask, ask Me, and trouble not My disciples. They 
are silent. Not a scribe opens his mouth. Finally, 
the father of the afflicted son relates what has oc- 
curred as far as lie himself is concerned. 

All this corresponds so perfectly well with my own 
personal experience as a missionary in Mexico that 
1 can feel that it was a master-hand that penned 
these lines. During my whole stay in Mexico, 
no })riest or advocate of the Komish church would 
ever engai>;c in conversation with myself, but the 
moment my back was turned they would endeavor 
to entice awa}^ our converts. On one occasion, 
which I distinctly remember, being worn down with 
steady work, 1 went for ten days, in the lieat of 
the summer, to rest in the mountains. I was no 
sooner gone than tliey circulated a report that I had 
become convinced of my errors, and had gone to the 
United Shites, never to return. And oh ! liow active 
our enemies were in taking advantage of every such 
occasion to ciiculate tlieir malicious insinuations and 
slanders; but when confronted with the truth, not a 
word woidd they utter, until another occasion gave 
them opportunity to repeat their calumnies, wdiicli 
thcv were most certain to do. 

a/ 

''^ And one of the multitude answered and said, 
3f aster, I have brought unto Thee 7ny son, which 
hath a dumh spirit; and ivheresoever he taketh him 



THE LUNATIC CHILD. 429 

he teareth him; and he foarneth and gnasheth with 
his teeth, and phieth aioay ; and I spaA^e to Thy dis- 
ciples that they should cast him out; and they could 
not.''' I sliall not dwell upon this subject. I have 
nothing new to tell yon about those possessed with 
devils. The case before us appears to be somewhat 
similar to epilepsy. 

"i/d answereth him^ and saith, faithless genera- 
tion, how long shall I he with you ? how long shall 
I suffer you f hring him unto MeP " O faithless 
generation" I think is addressed to the whole multi- 
tude, and not to the disciples alone, as some suppose. 

''^ And they hr ought him unto Him: and when lie 
saw him, straightway the spirit tare hhn ; and he 
fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And 
He asked his father. How long is it ago since this 
came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And 
ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the 
waters, to destroy him: hut if Thou canst do any 
thing^ have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus 
said unto him, If thou canst helieve, all things are 
possihle to him that helieveth. And. straightway the 
father of the child cried out, and said with tears. 
Lord, I helieve; help Thou mine unhelief.^^ Christ 
does not cure the case immediately, but engages the 
fatlier in conversation about his son. You notice 
that the father says, ''''Have comp)assion on us, and 
help us^ Tiie life of his child was so bound up with 
his own life that any help granted the son was to 
the father also. The language of this father is 
similar to that of the Syrophenician woman in behalf 
of her daughter, ''Lord, have mercy on me." It 



430 THE lord's miracles. 

does not appear to be so much a want of faith 
upon tlie part of tlie father as being misguided by 
tlie malicious scribes. ''Lord, 1 believe; help Thou 
mine unbelief" appears to come from a sincere heart. 
He went to the servants, not to tlie Master. Men 
too often expect help from the minister. Go to 
Christ; He is the divine essence of all love, wisdom 
and power. "Come unto Me" is His invitation. 
The Romish doctrine of having a priest — a human 
intercessor — between ourselves and God, will not do. 
We cannot believe through others, however nmch 
confidence we maj^ have in their religion. In a 
teachable spirit we go to Him; in humility we kneel 
down and tell Him our needs; a feeling of peace 
and of nearness to Him comes to us, and we feel 
encouraged; thus is a spirit of faith formed within 
us, and we receive in a willing manner and test by 
loving practice the truths He has taught us. Faith 
cannot come to us till the Lord is fully realized in 
our hearts. 

" When Jesus saw that the people came running 
together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying 2mto him, 
Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out 
of him, and enter no more into him. Ami the spirit 
cried, and rent him sore, and, came out of him : and 
he teas as one dead; insomuch that many said. He 
is dead. But Jesus took him hy the hand, and lifted 
him up ; and he aroseP "I charge tliee that thou 
come out of him." None but God has this power 
over the spirits of the unseen world. ''I charge 
thee" vvas never spoken to any nnclean spirit by 
Peter, James or John. With them it was ever "in 



I'HE LUNATIC CHILD. 431 

the naine of Jesus'''' that niicleMri spirits were cast 
out. Tlieir authority was only delegated authority, 
while His was the original — Divine. " The spirit 
rent him sore." This is the last opportunity he will 
ever have, and he is determined to make the most of 
it. As some one remarks, he is "like tlie outgoing 
tenant, who cares not what mischief he does." 

Oh! how many unclean spirits of this sort there 
are, who, like Satan, are filled with great rage, know- 
ing that their time is short. 

'^And vjhen He loas come into the house^ His dis- 
ci])les asked Him privately^ Why coidd not we cast 
him out? And He said unto thenn^ This kind can 
come forth hy nothing hut hy fasting and lyrayerP 
Mattliew says: "Jesus said unto them, Because of 
your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, if ye have 
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto 
this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, and 
it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible 
unto you. Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by 
prayer and fasting." 

When I first went to Mexico, one of the early 
converts, fixing on a literal interpretation of these 
words, was endeavoring to do an extraordinary 
amount of fasting and prayer, supposing that some 
supernatural power would be granted to him. If 
living, I presume he is fasting yet, unless he has 
gone over to the scribes and Pharisees, and con- 
cluded that Christ was an impostor. Upon this 
passage of Scripture I have found nothing to my 
mind that is satisfactory. The great difficulty, not 
only with the disciples, but with the whole of this 



432 THE lord's miracles. 

miiltitude, was, that they looked upon these miracles 
very much as we would upon the tricks of a con- 
jurer. They did not appear to know that in heaven 
and earth there was but one power that could per- 
form them — Christ alone, the Lord of all, except as 
He chose to delegate this power to otliers. Until 
He chose to delegate this power to ^them by an ex- 
traordinary effusion of His Spirit, they could perform 
no miracles. The time had not come when Christ's 
promises to His disciples would be ful tilled. A 
teacher of Latin may promise his scholars tliat they 
shall deliver a Latin oration to the whole college, 
but tlieir inability to do so while studying the Latin 
grammar is no proof that he is an impostor. When 
the disciples knew what the kingdom of heaven was, 
and possessed an unbounded faith in a risen Lord 
tlien tliis power was delegated to them. To-day 
this power is spiritual, and exercised over Satan's 
spiritual kingdom. 

But it is especially recorded, that when He sent 
them out He gave them power over unclean spirits. 
Tills is true; and I think the whole difficulty lies 
just here, that He gave them this power only while 
on this mission, and when the mission ceased the 
power ended. Suppose Mr. M should com- 
mission me to go to a certain city, and buy goods 
for him; it would be understood that whatever bills 
I signed on that journey, he would honor by prompt 
payment; but if I contracted a bill six months after- 
wards, he would not pay it, as it was not included in 
the commission. And just so in the case of the dis- 
ciples. A want of faith, with increased prayer and 



THE STATER IN THE FISh's MOUTH. ^3 

fasting, must not be taken literally. They had faith 
enough — in fact, they had too much faith, or they 
would not have undertaken to cast out this unclean 
spirit. But their faith was not of the right kind. 
Their faitli was that of tlie Mexican I spoke of — 
faith in tlieir own ability. The prayer and fasting 
is not to be of body, but of spirit. In the transfig- 
uration a foretaste of the spiritual kingdom is pre- 
sented. The next commission the apostles receive 
to cast out unclean spirits will be under the auspices 
of that kingdom. Prayer and fasting, then, means 
humility, depreciation of self, magnifying the power 
and glor}^ of Christ. "In My name shall they cast 
out devils." While they are in hot dispute as to 
which should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, 
they have no power to cast out devils. 



THE STATER IN THE FISH'S MOUTH. 

"And when they were come to Caperuaum, they that received 
tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master 
pay tribute ? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the 
house, Jesus prevented him. saying, What thinkest thou, Si- 
mon ? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute ? 
of their own children, or of strangers ? Peter saith unto Him, 
Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children 
free. Notwithstanding, lest we^should offend them, go thou to 
the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh 
up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a 
piece of money : that take, and give unto them for Me and 
thee."— Matt. xvii. 24-27. 

A GREAT deal of discussion was entertained in 
early times in regard to this miracle, as to whether 
the tribute money here spoken of was the tax col- 
19 



43t THE lord's miracles. 

lected by the Hoinan govern loout, or a tax to sup- 
port the temple service ; in other words, was it a 
civil, or was it a religious tax? Pretty much all 
modern commentators are so thoroughly agreed that 
this was a religious tax, and the whole language as 
well as the force and design of the pai'able teach 
that it was for the expenses of the temple-service, 
that it would hardly be worth our time to discuss 
the merits of this question. In passing tlirougli it 
I may merely point out some of the most prominent 
proofs. 

'''And when they were come to Capernaum^ they 
that received tribute money came to Peter and said, 
Doth not your Master pay tribute f Tlie manner 
in which the question is asked — " Doth not your 
Master pay tribute ?" — would indicate tluit this was 
not a compulsory tax, but ratlicr a free-will offering. 
And then, it could not be the Koman tax, as that 
was compulsory, and thus it would not be presented 
as a tax they might pay or not, as they chose, but 
a tax that they must pay. 

This tax is referred to in varicjus ]Mii'ts of the Old 
Testament. In Moses we read,- "This they shall 
give, every one that passeth among them that are 
numbered, (that is, twenty years old,) half a shekel 
after the shekel of the sanctuary ; a half shekel sliall 
be the offering to tlie Lord." This was called the 
atonement monc}^, and was used to defray the ex- 
penses of tlie tabernacle, and later of the temple. 
In the time of the kings we read of this tax being 
collected and applied to the repairing of tlie temple. 
"And the king called for Jehoiada, the chief, and 



THE STATER IN THE FISh's MOUTH. 435 

said unto him, Why hast tliou not required of the 
Levites to bring in out of Jndah and out of Jerusa- 
lem the collection, according to the commandment of 
Moses, the servant of the Lord, and of the congre- 
gation of Israel, for the tabernacle to witness ?" 
"And thej made a proclamation througli Judah and 
Jerusalem, to bi'ing unto the Loi'd the collection that 
Moses, the servant of God, laid upon Israel in the 
wilderness." This tax was the same amount tliat 
Peter paid, that is, a stater or shekel, for himself and 
Lord, the tax of two persons, according to the law 
of Moses. It appears that this tribute was paid 
yearly by devout Jews everywhere, and sent up to 
Jerusalem by those Jews who were living in the re- 
motest parts of the Roman empire. After the de- 
struction of tlie temple, this tax was still collected, 
as far as possible, by the Romans, and sent to Rome, 
probably to defray the expenses of a pagan religion. 
" He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the 
house^ Jesus prevented him,^ saying., What thinkest 
thou. Simon f of iv horn do the kings of the earth take 
custom or tribute ? of their ov'n children^ or of 
strangers?'^ Had this been the Roman tribute, it 
would have been tlie publicans that would have col- 
lected it, and Peter would undoubtedly have hesi- 
tated in answering such a question so promptly. 
But when the question was asked, Peter, not think- 
ing that his Lord was the King of Israel, but that 
He was a true Jew, who lived according to the law 
of Moses, who liad before told tliem tliat He had 
not come to do away with tlie law, but wlio at His 
baptism had told them tliat He must " fulfil all 



436 THE lord's miracles. 

righteousness," unhesitatingly responded "yes," thus 
compromising himself and his Lord. Peter, as was 
too often the case, was altogether too headstrong, 
too hasty, always ready to form his conclusions by 
a superficial view, and never thought of diving down 
into the very depths of a subject to examine it in all 
its aspects. He thouglit that his Lord's piety would 
compel Him to pay the tax to support the temple 
service. Why, in his mind, there could be no doubt 
about it. Alas ! how many theologians and churches, 
— I am sorry to say, yet it is too true, whole sects — 
base their docti'ines and proofs upon views as super- 
ficial as those of Peter in tliis case. Examine the 
Scriptures that you may know wliether these things 
be 60 or not. 

" Jesus prevented hwi^ " He saith, Yes. And 
when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented 
him, saying, WJiat thinkest thou, Simon ? of whom 
do the kings of tlie earth take custom or tribute? of 
their own children, or of sti'angers?" The word 
"prevent" here means "to anticipate." Jesus, 
knowing Peter's thoughts, knew all that had trans- 
pired, and how Peter had compromised Him in the 
payment of the temple tax. Before Peter had had 
an opportunity to tell Him the circumstance. He 
asks Peter the question, " Of whom ?" " Peter 
saith unto Him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto 
him. Then are the children* free." Peter had just 
before this confessed tliat Olirist was the Son of the 
living God, of tliat God to whom tlie temple be- 
longed, and for whom tlie whole temple service was 
performed. If, therefore, the kings of the earth ex- 



THE STATER IN THE FISh's MOUTH. 437 

einpt tlieir own cliildreii from paying taxes, how 
ninch more then shonld the King of the temple ex- 
empt His own Son 'i 

Unclonl)tedlj Peter sees the force of tlie question 
at once. The children of the King mnst be free. 
If Christ is a Son of David, He mnst tlien be free 
from this tax, and mach more so if He be the Son 
of God. Here, again, we liave another proof that 
this was not a civil tax, to be paid to the Koman 
Emperor. Christ was in no sense a son of C?esar, and 
while in Caesar's dominions conld in no way be free 
from paying Csesar's taxes. " Render nnto C?esar 
the things that are Caesar's," was a law wliich He, 
as a man, was in duty bound to respec^t, as much as 
any other citizen of Judea. 1 notice on this point, 
that Trench and others confine the sonship to Cln-ist 
alone. Trench says: "The explanation, namely, 
that He (Christ) intends to extend the liberty to His 
people, to all that in this secondary sense are the 
sons of God, cannot be admitted, for it is not the 
fact concerning dues owing to God." Here I think 
that we may discern the same hasty conclusions which 
Peter had formed concerning the payment of the 
tribute money by his Master. 1 believe tliat Christ 
here intended to include all regenerated believers. 
I^irst, If Christ had intended that Peter should un- 
derstand that He alone was exempt from the pay- 
ment of til is tribute money, He would have asked, 
" Of whom does a king exact tribute ? of his own 
son, or of strangers f Second, The word "strangers" 
here does not typify those who are outside of the 
family of God — that is, the pagan and Gentile world 



438 riiE lord's miracles. 

— but the house of Isniel while in servitude to the 
law. Soon the gospel will make them tree, and then 
they will be under no obligation to longer support 
the temple service. I know that I shall be answered 
here, that the Christian Church will then supersede 
the temple service, and that they will still be under 
obligations to pay tribute to support the church, as 
they had been to support the temple. But I answer, 
that there is a still deeper point to take into con- 
sideration, which manifests itself in the next verse. 

'' JVoiwU/ista?idi})g^ lest we should offend them, go 
thou to the sea, and' cast an hook, and take up the 
fish that first cometh up ; and when thou hast op>ened 
his mouth, thou shall find a piece of money : that 
take, and give unto them for Me and thee!'^ " Lest 
we offend them,' we will pay this tribute money. 
Peter, still being a servant with Moses, was under 
obligations to pay the iem])le tril)ute ; but Christ, 
being Lord of the temple, was not. But Christ, in 
the position He then occupied, was not yet Lord of 
the temple. His position was tiuit of a gospel min- 
istc]', an office upon which Peter would soon enter ; 
and not only was He a representative of the gospel 
ministry to be instituted in the Christian Church 
after the descent of the Holy Ghost, but He was 
also a representative of the regenerated Church. 
Now all in the Christian Church who may be said 
to be still disci j)les of Moses, ai-e under obligations 
to pay their tribute to the Chni-cli, for these, above 
all others, are the recipients of all favors, while they 
contribute none, and can contribute none, unless it 
be in this way; that is, by their yearly or monthly 



'- — 439 



THE STATER IN THE FISH S MOUTH. 

dues to tlie Chnrcli, wliatever these may be. But, 
on the other hand, tlie regenerated priesthood of tlie 
Chnrch are all supposed to be engaged in some active 
service for the Church. One is a minister, another 
an elder, who should assist tlie minister in his labors 
within tlie Church, attend to the prayer-meetings, 
teaching, and any work he can find to do within the 
Church. Another is a deacon, whese work is out- 
side of the Church, to visit the poor, the sick, to 
bring in, while othei'S are engaged as teachers. Pro- 
perly speaking, those laboring for the Church might 
be considered exempt. Yet Christ here, as tlieir re- 
presentative, who, by healing of leprosy and palsy and 
other kindred diseases, was sending to the temple 
people who would not otherwise enter it, was indi- 
rectly contributing to the temple service; yet as 
these short-sighted people could not see this, for fear 
of giving them offense, He sets us an example by 
paying the temple ti'ibute — just what every regene- 
rated believer should do over and above all the per- 
sonal labor he can perform* in other ways for the 
benefit of the Church. And yet our Savior carries 
out the distinction to the end of the chapter — "Pay 
for Me and for thee." He does not say, '' Pay for 
us," for that would be putting the servant and the 
Son in the same category. " I ascend unto My Fa- 
ther and your Father; to My God and your God." 
^' Notioithstanding, lest we should offend them^ go 
thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish 
that first Cometh v/p ; and' when thou hast opened his 
mouth, thou shall find a piece of money ; that take, 
and give unto them for Me and theeP Now observe 



440 THE lord's miracles. 

the way in which this money was obtained. He 
sends Peter back to his old occupation. He must 
go a fishing. And how else can the temple of Olirist 
be built up? Keep in mind that the sea is the pagan 
w^orld, and the fish are those wdio are to be converted 
from it. Convert a drunkard, and ho becomes la- 
borious. Convert your idle, indigent neighbor, and 
he becomes industrious. And if your neiglibor be- 
comes tlirifty and industrious, tluit will put money 
in your pocket wherewith you can pay the tribute 
money. The lish will bring you the money in his 
own mouth. 1 wish I could impress this lesson on 
the mind of ever}^ one wlio reads these words. The 
religion of Jesus Christ is intended to make every 
m.an prosperous liere in tliis life, and would most 
certainly do so if people would only put it into 
practice. 



EAISING OF LAZARUS. 

"When Jesas heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto 
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be 
glorified thereby'.'' — John xi. 4. 

At the house of- a small family in Bethany, a lit- 
tle village but a short distance from Jerusalem, our 
Lord, wliile occupied in His earthly ministry, was 
accustomed to visit. One motive may have been 
its nearness to Jerusalem, where He could spend the 
night after having occupied the day in teaching in 
the temple and streets of Jerusalem. Another may 
have been the still quiet of a little village, away 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 44:1 

from the noise and bustle of the great cit)^, render- 
ing it a very appropriate place to rest both mind and 
body. 

It has been a disputed question among theologians 
why the first three evangelists have made no record 
of this miracle — one of the most important miracles 
that Christ performed — while John alone records it. 

Without entering into tlie merits of this question, 
I will only observe, that the first three evangelists 
say very little about the miracles wrought in and 
near Jerusalem. John appears to confine liim- 
self more directly to these, while the other evange- 
lists are more particular in regard to those wrought 
in Galilee. This is in accordance with John's posi- 
tion, being the most spiritual of all the evangelists, 
and records that which comes more directly under 
his own grade in the spiritual ladder dreamed of by 
father Jacob. 

" W/ie7i Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is 
not unto death, hut for the glory of God, that the Son 
of God might he glorified therehy. Now Jesus loved 
Martha, and her sister, a7id Xazarus. When He had 
heard therefore that he was sick, He ahode two days 
still in the same place where He wasP Lazarus was 
sick. The sisters dispatch a messenger to Jesus. 
He is at a distance, perhaps at Bethabara, beyond 
the Jordan. The sisters have the utmost confidence 
in Jesus, believing that He can restore their brother 
to health. The messenger has gone, and they begin 
to reason with each other, Will He come? The 
Jews had lately attempted to stone Him. If He 
comes, they will put Him to death. But will He 



442 THE lord's miracles. 

not give the word. We liave seen that in other 
cases He but gave the command, and the disease 
left the sick person. Will lie speak the word now? 
or will He come ? Is He afraid that the Jews will 
kill Him. 

But the brother grows worse and worse, and finally 
dies. What does this mean ? Will He not even speak 
the woi'd to save him that He had professed to love 
so well? He allows him to die. But perhaps the 
messenger lias not l)een able to find llim. And 
now the messenger returns alone. How is this? 
We can imagine the questions that the two sisters 
put to the messenger on his return. Did you find 
Him? Why did He not come? Why did He not 
speak the word ? And the messenger relates the 
words that Jesus spoke: "This sickness is not unto 
death." How can it be possible? Why, he is dead 
already. Can it be possible that Jesus has been de- 
ceived? Why, he has already been two days in the 
tomb. 

And then remember that the two sisters were sur- 
rounded by unbelieving Jews, who had lately sought 
to stone Jesus, imagining Him to be an impostor. 
And now is the hour of their tiinmph. They would 
say, "How often have we told you that He was an 
impostor; and now you see that we were right. 
He says that 'this sickness is not unto death,' and 
behold, he is ali"cady dead and buried. Do not 
trouble yourself about Him. He w^ill never dare 
show His face in the vicinity of Jerusalem again." 
Oh I if any one ever had reason to have their faith 
in Jesus of Kazareth shaken, these two sisters cerr 



]RA1SING OF LAZARUS. 443 

tainly did. And yet there is something in the words 
of Jesus wliich tlie messenger brouglit which dispels 
the idea tliat He is an impostor: "This sickness is 
not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the 
Son of God might be glorified thereb}^" Could we 
but understand it, no sickness of the body is unto 
death. It is but tlie tearinoj avvav of this raiJ:«:ed, 
tattered garment of clay, to be clothed in life eternal, 
that the Son of God may be glorified in us. 

"In an open space between the Esquiline and Pal- 
atine liills are to be seen the ruins of the Colosseum, 
or Flavian ampliitheati'e. This gigantic edifice, the 
boast of Rome and of the world, which was begun 
by V^espasian, and completed by Titus, is in form an 
ellipse, and covers an area of about five and a lialf 
acres. The external elevation consisted of four 
stories; each of the three lower stoi'ies liaving eighty 
arches, supported by half-columns. * * * The 
walls of the fourth story w^ere faced with Corinthian 
pilasters, and lighted by forty rectangular windows. 
The space surrounding the central arena within the 
walls was occupied with sloping galleries, rising one 
above another, resting on a huge mass of arches; and 
ascending towards the summit of the external wall, 
one hundred and sixty staircases led to the galleries, 
and an immense moveable awning covered the whole. 
* * * Within the area of the Colosseum, gladia- 
tors, martyrs, slaves, and wild beasts combated 
during the Homan festivals; and here the blood of 
both men and animals flowed in torrents to furnish 
amusement to the degenerated Romans." 

Let us go back eighteen hundred years, and stand 



44:4 THE lord's miracles. 

in that great amphitheatre in Rome. Thousands are 
gathered there in those immense tiers of seats that 
run around the mammoth building. Yonder, in 
purple robes and crowns of gold, sit tlie Caesars and 
the members of the royal family. Near by are the 
officers cf the court, and many a general, covered 
with scars received on foreign battlefields. Youth 
and beauty, as well as hoary old age, are gathered 
there. Here a seat is occupied by young men 
and women, engaged in liappy, joyous conver- 
sation, and there another by an entire family — 
father, mother and children — all anxiously awaiting 
an interesting spectacle. It is a gala day, and all 
appear to be happy. A band strikes up a tune un- 
known in our day. You may call it "The Fall of 
Jerusalem," or "Tlie Coronation of Titus," if you 
please. Suddenly tlie band stops, and all is still. 
Tlie expected hour has arrived. A door opens in 
the side of the immense pit, and a captive — a young 
girl — is led fortli into the middle of tlie pit. She 
kneels, raises her chained hands, and folds them 
across her breast, raises her eyes to lieaven, and dis- 
tinctly repeats, " Our Father, which * * * Thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven." But 
another door has been opened in the pit, and an im- 
mense lion springs upon his prey. A scream, a 
struggle, and our Father's will has been done. This 
pain, this struggle, is not unto death, but unto life. 
"If a grain of corn fall not into the earth and die, it 
remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit." The grain of corn planted in Rome's great 
Colosseum nourishes in immortal youth in a world 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 445 

from which all savage beasts and beastly Neros are 
excluded for ever. Nor is this all. Tlie grain of 
corn has borne a whole sheaf of rich, golden grain. 
The heroic act which induced this young disciple of 
Clirist to cling so stubbornly to the religion of Him 
who had redeemed her soul as to yield up her mortal 
life a laugliing-stock and spectacle of derision to the 
great multitude, and suffer a painful death rather 
than deny Him, had its influence on a score of others, 
who that day, by beholding her example, were born 
anew — born into Christ's kingdom. "The ashes of 
the martyrs are the seed of the Church." By the 
suffering of this martyr the glory of God was re- 
vealed to others. 

" When Jesus heard tliat^ He said, This sickness is 
not unto death, hut for the glory of God, that the Son 
of God mig?it he glorified therehyT Oh ! this sick- 
ness, this pain we suffer here, is not unto deatli ! 
Others seeing our fortitude, our confidence in Christ, 
as we pass through the dark waters, will be induced 
to abandon all hope of navigating their way through 
the grave alone and in their own strength, and will 
accept the guidance of the only Pilot who knows the 
way, and so our Lord will be glorified thereby. 

^^ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and 
Lazarus. When He had heard, therefore, that he 
was sick. He ahode two days still in the same place 
where He was.''"' It appears strange that, if Christ 
loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, He should 
still remain in the same place until Lazarus w^as 
dead. But wdien we examine the matter in its 
proper light, a most important truth is taught us 



446 THE LORD^S MIRACLES. 

here. The Jews were expecting a Savior who would 
save them from earthly enemies hy the power of the 
sw^ord, as Josliua had done, and who would confer 
upon them won<lerful blessings, as Moses liad done, 
in this life. With the exception of a few typical 
miracles to strengthen our confidence in Him, Ciirist's 
greatest blessings come to us tlirough the grave. 
Oil ! wliy docs He tarry ? 

That dear cliild is at the point of death — suffering, 
groaning, dying! Hour after hour passes, and there 
is no change but for the worse. Why does He tarry? 
It is not here, it is not here, that the blessing comes. 
It is the other side of the grave. That martyr, con- 
signed to deatli! lie is chained to the stake; the fag- 
gots are piled up around him ; the torch is applied ; 
the ribald throng shout, and curse, and mock, and 
blaspheme ; the flame arises, scorching, stifling, blind- 
ing! Oh ! wli}' does He not come to avenge His own 
elect? Not here; not now. We must first glorify 
God by suffering for Him, and then He will glorify 
us by raising us to immortal life. 

" Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us 
go into Judea again. His disciples say unto Hiin, 
3f aster, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and 
goest Thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are 
there not twelve hours in the day? If any via?i 
walk in the day, he stumhleth not, because he seeth 
the light of this world. But if a man xoalk in the 
night, he stumhleth, because there is no light in him?'' 
Christ speaks of His own mission here as a day of 
twelve hours. While this day remaineth the prince 
of darkness could have no control over Him. His 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 447 

enemies could not touch Him. He must o-o and 
fnlfil His work. When His work was accom- 
plished, then the night cometli ; then He, like 
ourselves, like tlie martyrs, must be delivered over 
to tlie prince of the niglit to be crucified, put to 
death. "But if a man walk in the night, lie stum- 
bleth, because there is no liglit in him." A most im- 
portant admonition. Whatever work the Father 
has given us to do, we must do now. If we neglect 
this work until night comes, we stumble. If we 
squander the day of life foolishly, we can make no 
amends in the o^rave. In the nio-ht we stumble and 
fall into the grave, and our opportunity to do the 
Lord's work is gone for ever. Satan's emissaries 
are around us, — suffering and sickness, disease, the 
allurements of the world, — and even Christ's disciples 
would advise us to put off the work; but the setting 
sun warns us that the day is closing. 



In reviewing the former sei'mon, we see that Laz- 
arus was sick. The sisters send a messenger to bring 
Jesus of Nazareth to him, to curn him; the}^ wait 
and anxiously watch for His coming; their brother 
grows w^orse, and still the Savior docs not come; he 
dies, is buried, and yet He has not come. There 
are unbelievers at hand who make use of this oppor- 
tunity to tr}^ and shake their faith in Jesus. It is a 
trying moment to them. The messenger returns 
alone; they question him as to what Jesus said; he 
gives them His answer: "This sickness is not unto 
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of 



448 THE lord's miracles. 

God might be glorified thereby." They cannot 
understand His answer. *'This sickness not unto 
death,'* when he is already dead and buried? Their 
minds nre not in a state to grasp the true meaning 
of His words — to understand tliat life is but the 
result of death, even in the vegetable world, as a 
grain of corn being put in the eartli to die and bring 
forth its fruits. The young Christian suffered death 
and passed awa}', but her example remained to give 
life to others, to raise up believers, and the Son of 
God was glorified thereby. "Now Jesus loved 
Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." But he leaves 
them until Lazarus is dead, and an important truth 
is taught us from this, that we must first glorify 
God by suffering for Him — tiiat the greatest blessing 
we receive, that of eternal life, comes to us through 
the grave. 

" Then after that saith He to His disciples^ Let us 
go into Jadea again. His disciples say unto HiiUy 
Master^ the Jetcs of late sought to stone 2'hee, and 
goest Thou thither again f Jesus answered, Are 
there not twelve hours in the day f If any man 
loalh in the day he stumhleth not, because he seeth the 
light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, 
he stumhleth, because there is no light in him."' 
Christ refei's here to His own mission. He must 
fulfil His work liere, — His eartlily mission. Ere 
long He too must be crucified — put to deatii. We 
also must work while it is yet da}'. Let not our 
lives pass with no effort to do the work put before 
us. Christ is our example, our guide; follow Him. 

" And I am glad for your sakes that I was not 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 44:9 

there^ to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless^ let 
us go unto him.'" The disciples misunderstood our 
Lord here. Thej^ supposed that He was talking of 
natural sleep, when He was speaking to them of death 
itself. These mistakes on the part of the disciples 
ap])ear to have been quite common. They under- 
stood ever}' thing in a niaterial sense. When He 
snid, "Destroy this temple," etc., they supposed 
that He spoke of the temple in Jerusalem, when 
He was talking to them about His own body. When 
He spake of the leaven of the Pharisees, they 
tliought that He spake of the bread that they could 
not eat, because they had forgotten to take it. And 
yet, on the other hand, they appeared to misunder- 
stand Him entirely when He spake about His death 
and resurrection. So many times we find Him tell- 
ing them about His death and resurrection, and yet 
they did not know till after He was risen that He 
w^ould rise again, leads me to suppose that they must 
have understood Him in an allegorical, and not in 
a literal, sense. In no other way can I comprehend 
how they could be so ignorant of such an important 
fact, when He was continuMlh^ bringing it before 
them, as plainly and :is distinctly as human language 
could express it. 

" Then said Jesus unto them plainly^ Lazarus is 
dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was 
not there, to the intent ye m^ay helieve ; nevertheless, 
let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called 
Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us go, that 
we may die with him.''' i!Tow He tells them plainly 
that Lazarus is dead. I have already spoken of the 



450 THE lord's mikacles. 

trial of the faith of the two sisters. Jesus had not 
healed their brother, He had said tliat his sickness 
was not nnto deatli ; and vet he was already dead 
and buried. They were surrounded by unbelieving 
Jews, vvlio had tried to stone Him. They liad pro- 
nounced Him an impostor, and now tlie messenger 
had brought back word that He had said that this 
sickness was not unto death. They wanted no fur- 
ther testimony tlian this. And now the disciples 
begin to reason together. They would say, '^Have 
w^e not already warned Him not to go there?" " Did 
w^e not tell Him how tlic Jews souglit to stone Him 
when He was there before ?" " And now^ the mes- 
senger has already returned, and told them that 
Lazarus' sickness was not unto death, and yet he is 
already dead." "Will they not certainly stone Ilim 
for an impostor now? And if we go with Him tliey 
will stone us also." "Then said Thomas, which is 
called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us 
also go, that we may die with liim." Was this faitli 
in Thomas such as would lead liim to follow his 
Master while the day lasted, and then take the con- 
sequences of resting under the lock and key of him 
who has the power of death ? (3r was it a melan- 
choly don't-care-what-becomes of-me-now^ disposition, 
that would induce him to throw away his life, just 
as some Mexican revolutionist would follow his chief 
either in victoi'y or death, feeling that, if he could 
not gain the former, the latter was preferable to a 
life of shame and disgrace. Chrysostom thinks that 
Thomas was weak and timid, and would hardly dare 
follow his Master up to Jerusalem ; and yet after he 



» RAISING OF LAZARUS. 451 

had become tlioronghly imbued with the spirit of 
his Master, lie sliraiilv at no danger in proclaim- 
ing his risen Lord, braved every danger for tlie sake 
of the gospel, and did not even stop until lie had 
carried the gospel away into India. 

'' Then when Jesus carne^ He found that he had 
lain in the grave four days already. Noio Bethany 
loas nigh unto Jerusalem^ ahont fifteen furlongs off. 
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary^ 
to comfort them concerning their hrother^ We have 

already seen what sort of comforters the two sisters 
t/ 

had. I have before referred to the custom of hiring 
persons to mourn at funerals. But a true Comforter 
is coming, one tliat need not be hired. "Then Mar- 
tha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, 
went and met Him; but Mary sat still in the house." 
Here is a m3^stery not easily solved. Christ remains 
without, as tliough He were afraid of tlie Jews that 
were collected tliere. And yet, by some means, 
Martha hears that He is coming, and she immedi- 
ately goes out to meet Him, while Mary remains in 
the house. Here is something vei-y strange. Mar- 
tha had shown less affection for Jesus than Mary 
had, and yet had been more solicitous about His 
personal comforts. If the evangelist had told us 
that Mary went out to meet Him, and that Martha 
sat still in the house, it would appear much more 
natural. And yet to the spiritual observer, such is 
not the case. Martlia repi-esented the Jewisli re- 
liction — a relio'ion of ceremonies she was concerned 
about — and gave more attention to the temporal af- 
fairs of life, wliile Mary represented the Christian 



452 THE lord's miracles. * 

religion, and her concern was for the spirituah Siie 
loved to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His 
teachings. 

" Then said Martha unto Jesus^ Lord, if Thou 
hadst heen here, my brother had not died. Bat I 
know that even now, whatsoever Thou to lit ask of 
God, God will give it Thee. Jesus sa'Uh unto her, 
thy brother shall rise again. Martha, saith unto 
Him, I know that lie shall rise again in the resur- 
rection at the last dayP Martha's faith is not shaken 
at all. She believes Jesus to be a true prophet. She 
no doubt supposed that there might be some mis- 
understanding in tlie words of the messenger that 
she liad sent; but yet she believed that Jesus had 
power to raise her brother, as others of the Jewish 
prophets liad raised the dead. But she does not ap- 
pear to understand that it is by His own inherent 
power that Christ should raise the dead. "But I 
know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of 
God, God will give it Thee." But before Jesus an- 
swers this error into wliich she has fallen, He says, 
"Thy brother shall rise again." This is poor conso- 
lation. It was help here, and now, that slie wanted. 
It was not when the fulness of the Gentiles should be 
brought in, sti'etching away down througli twenty 
centuries, but now, and here, on tlie present occa- 
sion. Oh ! m}' brethren, how we feel Martlia's de- 
sire rising continually in our hearts day by day, and 
li )ur by hour. I do not know that you understand 
me. I will try to explain by illustration. A child 
at school may desire some passing enjoyment, — a toy 
it may be, or a liolida}*. His master refuses to grant 



RAISING OF LAZARUS. 453 

it. See how the child is disappointed. He cries; 
his heart is about to break; he will not be contented ; 
he thinks that lie is very badly treated — persecuted 
— and tliat his tcaclier is a very hard, cruel man. 
But his teacher knows that what lie will learn in 
the eight hours of study he would have squandered 
in a lioliday will in future years be of far more 
value than the holiday ; and the child grown to man- 
liood, as he looks back from after life, will be in- 
clined to censure his teacher because he did not keep 
him still more closely to his books. It is a present 
enjoyment that Martha wants; and did she have her 
brother back again, she could enjoy his company 
but for a little time. He must die again. Let the 
Master's will be done. It is but a little while at 
most, and will soon pass. 

'^ Jesus said unto her, I can the resurrection and 
the life; he that helieveth in Me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live.'' Christ is the resurrection. 
He is not only the resurrection, but He is the life. 
1 think that this passage of Scripture proves clearly 
that none can give life to the dead but Christ; and 
if He had never come to our woi'ld, all men would 
perish like the brute, and never rise again. In fact, 
if Christ had not come, all the children of Adam 
would be annihilated at death. Christ says to tlie 
Pharisees, "If I had not come." Again, Christ is 
the resurrection of all. If He is not the resurrec- 
tion of apostates, tlien apostates are not raised. 
Christ is tlie resuri-ection of tlie saved as well as tlic 
lost; but the lost are raised to shame and everlast- 
ing contempt. 



4 54 THE lord's miracles. 

^^ He that helicveth i?i Me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live.'''' Clirist's words, "I am the resnr- 
roction," appear to me to be a positive declaration 
by our Lord, that a resiirrection to damnation is not 
inlieritcd from A(Lam. The germ of immortality, 
wliether preserved unto a life of lioliness or per- 
verted nnto a life of damnation, called eternal death, 
can have but one origin — Christ. He speaks of no 
otlier resurrection but that wliich is by Him. Nor 
liave we any intimation whatever tliat there is any 
otlier. No account is taken here of tlie death of 
tlie bod}'. This corresponds with what Christ had 
already said to the Jews, "Verily, verily I say unto 
you, He that believe! h on Me hath eveidasting life." 
"And whosoever liveth and believetli in Me shall 
never die. Believest thou this?'' 

This appears to me a positive refutation of John 
Miller's book, "The Soul Immortal." I looked in 
vain for this passage in his book, desii-ing to know 
how he would dispose of it. I can understand it in 
no other sense tliat that he who livetli and believetli 
in Christ has already immortality of soul ; and al- 
though liis body die, and retui-n to dust, liis soul can 
never die. 

^'' She saith nnto JJivi, Yea, Lord, I helieve that 

« 

Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should 
come into the world."" Tliere was a belief among 
the Jews of that period that the Messiah wlien He 
should come would raise the dead: but liow far thev 
supposed His power over tlie dead would extend, 1 
am unable to say. I suppose, liowevei", tliat they 
thought that His power could at most be extended 



UAlSINa OF LAZARUS. 455 

upon tliose who had just died, and not upon persons 
who had been dead several days. 

^'•And when she had so scdd^ she went her way, and 
called Mary her sister secretly^ saying^ The Master 
is come, and calleth for thee. And as soon as she 
heard that^ she arose quickly, and came unto Hhn. 
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, hut was in 
that jf^Zacg where Martha m.et Him. The Jeios then 
which ivere with her in the house, and comforted her, 
wheil they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and 
went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the 
grave to weep thereP Martha told her sister secretly, 
no doubt fearing, from the liatred which the Jews 
bore to Jesus, that they might do Him some harm. 
She docs not wish tliem to know tliat He was there; 
btit hor precautions are useless; for not knowing 
why she went out, and at once guessing a reason, 
tlic}^ all arose and followed her. 

" Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and 
saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, 
Lord, if Thou hadst heen here my hrother had not 
died. When Jesus therefore saiv her loeeping, and 
the Jews cdso weeping which came loith her, He 
groaned in the sjnrit and was trouhledP Martha 
did not fall at the feet of Jesus, as Marj^ did. Mar- 
tha appears to have recognized Him as a prophet. 
She says, ^'Whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God." 
But Mary recognizes Him as divine, and falls at His 
feet and worships Him. It was only after Martha 
had been closely questioned by Jesus that she re- 
cognizes Him as the Son of God ; but Mary at once 
falls at His feet; it is the very first thing that she 



456 THE lord's miracles. 

does. The word translated " troubled " here slioiild 
be "filled with indignation." And oh! did He not 
have reason to be filled with indignation ? These 
hypocritical Jews would gladly stone Him who was 
the resurrection, and yet they mingle their hypo- 
critical tears with those of the spiritual Mary. They 
can weep for Mary's brother, but have no tears for 
Mary's Lord. We almost wonder that divine wrath 
did not cause the earth to open, and swallow them 
up. 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 

"But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the 
shore ; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. — John 
xxi. 4. 

The last chapter of John's gospel appears like an 
appendix, or rather a postscript, added after the 
epistle was completed. Some have supposed that 
perhaps Jojm did not write this chapter, but that 
souie of the Ephesian church wrote it after his 
death. It is possible that John may have added 
this chapter to his epistle some time after he had 
wi-itten that; but there can be no doubt but the 
chapter is John's. There are a number of Greek 
words in the original of this chapter whicli John 
uses elsewhere, but appear nowhere else in the J^ew 
Testament, besides several other words which appear 
to be peculiar to him, and are only occasionally used 
by the other writers. 

^^ After these things Jesus shewed Himself again 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 



45Y 



to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias ; and on this 
ivise shewed He Himself y ''Showed Himself." Do 
jou notice any thing peculiar in this expression ? 
Perhaps we have here a clue to something im- 
portant; let us follow it up. Luke, repeating the 
words of the disciples who liad remained in Jerusa- 
lem after our Lord's crucifixion: "The Lord is risen 
indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." Luke, in the 
Acts, says: "He loas seen many days of them that 
came up from Galilee."' The original says, "He 
shewed Himself many days." (?) Paul uses the 
same language: "He was seen of Cephas;" "He 
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;" 
"He was seen of James, and of all the apostles;" 
"He was seen of me also." In all of these pas- 
sages the original is, He appeared, or manifested 
Himself. ]^ow. this language is never used in re- 
ij^ard to Jesus l)efore His resurrection. "TlieA" see 
Him" is common enough, but that he appears to 
them, or manifests Himself to them, is only said of 
angels and of Jesus after His resurrection, indicating 
that when He appeared after His resurrection it was 
not in mortal flesh." 

" There loere together Simon Peter, and Thom.as, 
called Didymiis, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, 
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples. 
Si7non Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They 
say unto him, We also go with thee. They vjent 
forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that 
night they caught nothing.'' Some have supposed 
that Peter, having lost confidence in our Lord, re- 
turned to his old trade. I hardly think this could be 
20 



458 THE lord's miracles. 

the case, as Jesns had appeared to them hefore tliis, 
and now they all knew that He w'as risen. It is 
more than probable that, being short of means, Peter 
snggests to the disciples a trial of their old occu- 
pation in order to supply themselves with the neces- 
saries of life. 

We find in this second miraculous draught of 
fishes an intimate connection with the first, which 
occurred when Jesus called them to be disciples. 
[Now He is about to send them out as apostles, we 
are not surprised to find the same lesson repeated, 
only with some very significant variations to suit the 
occasion. Then, as now, they toil all night, and 
catch nothing. I have often told you that the long 
night in the history of our world was that period 
when Israel was in bondage to the law. No con- 
verts were made from other nations, except a few 
proselytes who occasionally embraced Judaism, per- 
haps through mere personal interest. No progress 
had been made by the Jewisii nation in spreading a 
knowledi>;e of the true God of Israel amoni>: the hea- 
then by which they were surrounded. So the night 
passed, and no fisli were caught. No sheep were 
brouo-ht into the Redeemer's fold. None were added 
to Israel but those who were born of the literal seed 
of Jacob. 

" But lohen the inornhig was novj come^ Jesiis 
stood on the shore; hut the disciples knew not that it 
was Jesus^ When this long night passes away, 
Jesus stands upon the shore, not now in mortal flesh, 
but in His glorified body. When the long tempes- 
tuous night of Judaism passes away, Jesus, in the 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 459 

form of a Comforter, appears on the shore, but at 
first His disciples know Him not. 

" Then Jesus saith unto thew^ Children^ have ye 
any meat f They answered Him, JVo. And lie 
said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the 
ship, and ye shall find. And they cast therefore, 
and note they were not ahle to draio it for tjie multi- 
tude of fishes.''^ Tliey cast in the net according to 
tlie command of Jesus, on the right side of the ship. 
In the former miracle of the same kind no distinction 
was made as to whicli side they were to cast the net, 
but here they are commanded to cast it on the right 
side. We can understand this at once^if we remem- 
ber the difference which existed between the work 
of the disciples before and after the resurrection. 
How often have I told you tliat John in his ministry 
made no distinction of those he baptized ? He bap- 
tized indiscriminately all who came to his baptism 
— good, bad, and indifferent. But*now the circum- 
stances are changed. Only the regenerated are to 
be I'eceivcd into a church composed of a spiritual 
priesthood, and consequently the order is h.ere given 
that they sliould cast the net on the I'ight side of the 
ship. I need not refer to all the places in tlie Scrip- 
tures where the riglit hand refers to that which is 
good, and the left to that which is bad or indifferent. 
Placing tlie sheep on His right hand, and the goats 
on His left, in the judgment, will be recalled to mind 
by all of you. Ezekiel lay on liis riglit side for 
Judah, in which was that remnant of T^rael which 
would be saved, but upr)n his left for the ten tribes 
which apostatized. 



460 THE lord's miracles. 

" And He said unto thein, Cast tlie net on the 
right side of tlie ship, and ye shall find. They cast 
therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for 
the mnltitnde of fishes. Tlierefore that disciple 
wlioni Jesns loved saith unto Petei", It is the Lord. 
Now when Simon Peter lieard that it was the Lord, 
he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked,) 
and did cast himself into the sea." John was the 
first to discover that the mysterious personage on the 
shore was the Lord. John was the most spiritual of 
all the disciples, and the most spiritual is always the 
first to discover the hand of the Lord in an event of 
this kind, j^gain, John probably recalled to mind 
the other uiiraculous draught of fishes, and its close 
resemblance to this, and at once saw that He who 
was the author of that, must also be the author of 
this. 

The word translated "naked" here may mean no 
more than that tie had thrown ofi'his outer garment, 
in order that he might be more free to work. 
Critics find that the word is often used in that sense 
in Greek literature. We do not know what the o^ar- 
ment was which is here translated a " fisherman's 
coat." The word literally means an ^^ overall^'' — 
gospel armor. 

'^ And the other disciples came in a little ship ; (^for 
they icere not far from land^ hut as it were two him- 
dred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon 
then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of 
coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus 
saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now 
caught. Simon Peter went vp, and drew the net to 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 461 

landfall of great fishes^ an hunched and fifty and 
three ; and for all there were so many^ yet was not 
the net hrol^enP How did that lire of coals come 
there ? How did the fish coine there wliich were on 
the coals ? AYliere did the bread come from ? Was 
this a miracle, or did Jesns ol)tain these tilings by 
natural process? It appears to me very much like 
a niii'acle. I believe that the lire and the fish and 
the bi-ead were all made miraculously, and that the 
disciples partook of tliis mii-aculous fish and of this 
miraculous bread. I see no more difficulty in be- 
lieving this than in believing that Jesus miraculously 
invested Himself witli a miraculous body, into the 
open side of which Tliomas could thrust his hand, 
and into whose wounded hands he could thrust his 
fingers, or that that miraculous bodj^ could eat 
natural bread, as He did in the presence of Abra- 
ham and Sarali, as well as in the presence of His 
own disciples. 

" Simon Peter v;ent up, and drew the net to land 
full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three ; 
and for all tliei'c wci'e so many, yet was not the net 
broken." None but ^r£?«^ fishes enter the net of the 
new covenant. John the iiaptist was a great pro- 
phet, but the very smallest cliild in the new cove- 
nant is greater than John. Kone but sanctified be- 
lievers are found in this net. 

One hundred and fifty-three was the number of 
the fishes. Twelve was a prominent number under 
the old covenant, and so was one hundred and forty- 
four. And I understand that the one hundred and 
forty-four thousand spoken of in Revelations, is the 



462 THE lord's miracles. 

typical mimber of tliose who should be saved under 
the old covenant. Perhaps this odd number, one 
hundred and fiftj^-three, is to designate the number 
which is to be saved under the new. 

The net loas not broken. On the occasion of the 
former draught of fishes, w^e are told that "the net 
brake." In commenting upon this passage in my 
sermon on that miracle, I followed the usual critics, 
that the net did not break, but was "about to break." 
I have examined all the versions I have at hand, and 
I find all the old versions say the net brake. Two 
new versions I liave, one says that "the net was 
breaking," and tlie otlier " the net began to break." 
I think these transhitions have been influenced by 
the critics more than by the original The original 
certainly says that the "net brake." The critics say 
tliat "if tlie net brake, the fish would get out." 
Why, this is just what tlie evangelist meant to say. 
The net did break, and some of the fish escaped; 
that is, under tlie old covenant, they fell from grace. 
But in this miracle, performed after the resurrection, 
we are distinctly told that the net did not break — 
that is, there is no falling from grace under the new 
covenant. Here we learn how errors creep into the 
translations of the Bible. 

"Jesus saitli unto them, Come and dine. And 
none of the disciples durst ask Him, AYho art Thou ? 
knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, 
and taketh bread, find giveth them, and fish likewise. 
This is now the third time that Jesus shewed Him- 
self to His disciples, after that He was risen from 
the dead." Why this meal? Christ, in His glorified 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 463 

body, did not need it. Tlie disciples were near tlieir 
own liomes. But the analogy which this bears to the 
S])iritiial must not be forgotten, or we lose sight of 
tlie great lesson wliich this Q;iiracle is intended to 
teach us. 

During the night our bark is tossed on the stormy 
sea, but in the morning Jesus stands on tlie shore, 
ready to feed us witli the bread of angels. Like tbe 
disciples, we bring of the fruits of our labors; and add 
them to the rejoicings of heaven. 

They knew that it was the Lord, yet they dare not 
ask Him. Why did they wish to ask Him ? "This 
is the Lord's doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes," 
is the language of His servants. We know by these 
miracles that it is tlie Lord, but w^e would know more 
of Him. And it is alone in eternity that a full 
knowledge of Him will be obtained ; for is not His 
goodness, mercy and love as vast as eternity, as last- 
inij; as time? 



"Jesus saith unto him, If I will tliat he tarry till. I come, what is 
that to thee? follow thou Me."'— John xxi. 22. 

The events evidently following the second miracu- 
lous draught of fishes, and recorded by John, have 
a most important connection with that miracle, and 
appear to grow' directly out of the miracle itself. 

Probably the most important lesson to be learned 
from this miracle w^as that the time had now come 
when the disciples were to go out into the world as 
fishermen of men, and in tliat capacity were to preach 



464 THE lord's miracles. 

the gospel to all nations; and that while engaged on 
this divine miesion, they wonld be amply provided 
for; and that they must now abandon all love to the 
world, and devote themselves to tlie Lord's work, 
witli an eye single to His glory, and a lieart tilled 
with love for the Savior of men. 

''So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon 
Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more 
than these? He saith unto llim, Yea, Lord; Thou 
knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him. Feed 
My lambs. He saith to hiu) again, the second time, 
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith 
unto Him, Yea, Lord; Tiiou knowest that I love 
Tiiee. He saith unto him. Feed My sheep. He 
saith unto hi:ii the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He 
said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And 
he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things'; 
Thou knowest that I love Tiice. Jesus saith unto 
llim, Feed My sheep." Our Lord's question to Peter 
doubtless had reference to the time when Peter had 
said, "Though all men be offended because of Thee, 
yet will I not be ofiended." Peter had said this in 
his own strength, and trusting in his own strength 
he fell. But his answer now is in quite a different 
spirit: "Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee." 
Three times our Lord presented this question to the 
erring, but now repentant, disciple. This was the 
number of times that Peter had denied Him. Peter 
was now grieved, and appealed at once to His 
divinity: "Thou knowest all things." Thou know- 
est what is in my heart. Thou knowest all thing's. 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 465 

Some have snp}30sed tliat tlie commands, "Feed 
My lambs," "Feed My sheep," are but different 
forms of the same command, or in other words, but 
different ways of expressing tlie same thing. I do 
not understand the Scriptures in this way. There is 
nothing superfluous in tlie Scriptures. Every ex- 
pression lias its own legitimate object. "Feed the 
lambs" I consider to refer to the young, the weak, the 
tender lambs in the faith; those who, in the Chris- 
tian dispensation, are the antitypes of the Jewish 
fold, whose proper sphere to-day is in the Sabbath- 
school. "The sheep" to which our Lord refers are 
those who are stronger, older in the faith — the re- 
generated spiritual priesthood. Both require spirit- 
ual food, and tliis is the gospel minister's occupation 
— to see that both are fed. He is not to confine 
himself to either one class or the other, but he is to 
give to all their meat in due season. 

I think that there were probably two objects in 
telling Peter to feed His flock. First, By so doing 
our Lord assures Peter that the past is all forgiven. 
He is now restored to his fornner position; and more 
than this, he is now to be one of the apostles to go 
forth and carry spiritual food to all the nations of 
the earth. Second, The other object is to givo him 
to understand that it is not an open profession of love 
that He now requires. An open profession of love 
before mio-ht have been of some value, but it is of 
no value now. He must prove his love by his deeds. 
He must now act. The time has come for speedy 
action. Peter must not now sit down and eat of 
the fish which have been miraculously brought into 



466 THE lord's miracles. 

liis net, and merely profess his love to his risen Lord, 
but he must now draw liis sword from the scabbard, 
and go out into tlie open field and figlit the great 
enemy, and light him, too, to the very jaws of death. 

"Verilj^, verily, I say unto thee, Wlien thou wast 
young, thou girdest tliyself, and walkedst whither 
tliou wouldest: l)ut when thou slialt be old, thou 
shalt streteli forth thy hands, and another shall gird 
thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 
Tliis spake lie, signifying ])y what death He should 
glorify God. And when He liad spoken this, He 
saith unto him, Follow Me." Tradition says that 
Peter was crucified with his head downwards. 
Whether tradition is correct on this occasion or not 
is a matter of little consequence. Our Lord un- 
doubtedly refers to a painful death, and such we 
have every reason to believe was tlie end of this 
suffering, yet glorious martyr. 

Peter liere, to some extent, may represent our 
humanity. In youth we are strong; we have great 
expectations; we can overcome every obstacle; and 
although Jewish priests and Roman soldiers come 
out armed against us, we fear them not, and are 
ready to draw the sword in defence of what we think 
is right. But when old age creeps upon us, t!ie 
spirit may gi'ow stronger and stronger, yet the flesh 
grows weaker and weaker, and every year we find 
that the enemy is drawing the cords closer around 
us, and we are' less able to resist, until, almost with- 
out a struggle, he forces us into the grave, carried 
bound whither we would not. 

"This spake He, signifying by what death he 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 467 

should glorify God. And wlien He had spoken this, 
He saith unto him, FoHow Me." Ko doubt, suiting 
tlie action to the word, our Lord walked away some 
distance along the rocky shore, and Peter followed 
Him. But oh! what a diiferent following this was 
to that first time when, three years before, Christ 
called him to follow Him. Oh ! could our minds 
grasp the difference in these two events, we would 
see Peter's heart overflowing. In that first call lie 
follows like a young soldier going to the battlefield, 
to carve his wav with his sword to srlorv. The youno: 
Prince has come — the Messial), the Son of David has 
come — to destroy the Roman yoke. Peter is brave 
now. His heart is filled with high expectations. It 
is a road to glory he is to travel now, to a seat by 
the side of David's Lord on His throne. But in this 
last following, how changed the scene. Along the 
shores of that silent sea he follows a supernatural 
being — a being not of earth; follows Him on a long, 
tedious journey through many lands, through sorrow, 
pain, suffering and martyrdom, death, the grave! 
Peter well knew^ w4iat this following meant; but it 
was to follow Him to a crow^n, the meanest and 
poorest of whose jewels would outshine all the 
diadems of earth. 

"Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple 
whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on 
His breast at supper, and said. Lord, which is he 
that betrayeth Thee? Peter seeing him saith to 
Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus 
saith unto him. If I will that he tarry till I come, 
what is that to thee? follow thou Me. Then went 



468 THE lord's MIRA0LE3. 

this saying abroad among the brethren, that that 
disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, 
he shall not die; but, If I will tliat he tarry till I 
come, what is that to thee?" Peter, turning around, 
saw John following also. Whether Peter was jeal- 
ous, as some suppose, or whether he asked out of 
curiosity, we know not. 

John was a very diffei'ent person from Peter. 
His whole life w^as different; his whole disposition 
was different. Peter here had heen hidden to follow 
his Lord, and he doubtless understood that this fol- 
lowing was typical of the rest of his life, following 
his Lord through terrible suffering to a sliameful 
death. But John follows unbidden. John follows 
at a distance. John's lot was probably not as severe 
as that of Peter, lie lived to a go<5d old age, and 
died a natural deatli. He did not follow his Lord 
through crucifixion, but he followed Him through 
much trial, and he foUow^ed Him, too, througli the 
grave. Peter was carried to his death by his ene- 
mies — bound, forced, dragged to martyrdom. Jolm 
tarried till the Lord Himself came and called him 
home. 

"Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till 
I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me. Then 
went this saying abroad among tlie brethren, that 
tliat disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto 
him, He shall not die; but if I will that he tarry till 
I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple 
which testifietii of these things, and wrote these 
things: and we know that his testimony is true. And 
there are also many other things which Jesus did, 



THE LAST MIRACLE. 469 

tlie which, if they should bo written evei'y one, I 
suppose that even the world itself could not contain 
tlie books tliat should be written. Amen." The 
error into which the disciples liere fell is not an un- 
common one. It had its foundation in a belief that 
Christ would soon come and establish a kingdom of 
Israel on earth, and that John would not die until 
He did come in that way. The coming which our 
Lord speaks of here is His coining at the hour of 
death, to receive the soul of the believer into His 
spiritual kingdom. 

John mnst die, and like Peter pass through the 
grave, but not, like Peter, be thrust into the grave 
by sacrilegious hands; but gentl}^ carried home, in a 
ripe old age, by the Angel of the Covenant. 

"Jesus saith unto him, If I will that lie tarry till 
I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me." 
Here, now, we have the important lesson. Xo 
matter what I do with John, or James, or Paul; the 
road I mark out for you is for you alone; walk in it. 
To a superficial observer there is a similarity of 
roads. The general events of all are alike — sin, 
repentance, suffering, death. But in detail they are 
all divergent. Peter's road \vas marked out in the 
great drama of earth's history before the foundations 
of the world were laid. John's also. Peter must 
follow the Lord where that Lord leads. If Peter's 
road Jeads to Jerusalem, to Babylon, and thence to 
Rome, as tradition says, he must walk in it. If 
John's road leads to Ephesus and to Patmos, he 
mnst go there. But wherever it goes he will dis- 
cover his Lord in it, and he must follow Him. 



470 THE LORD^S MIRACLES. 

Both may start, that briglit, sunshiny morning;, along 
the shores of the sea of Galilee, and tliey both follow 
the supernatural vision whicli leads them on. But 
they soon lose sight of eacli other. One goes into 
banishment, and sees from the storm}^ sliores of the 
^gean sea the heavens opened, and beholds visions 
of glory which no otlier mortal ever beheld, wliile 
the otlier is dragged to the cross by his enemies. 

Oh I whatever may be the lot which our risen 
Savior marks out for us, we must follow Him. It 
may be easier for others. Some are rich ; some 
have a pleasant time in life; some spend a whole 
life of beatitic vision, wliile others are in the mire of 
Despond, the Babylon of captivity. But no matter: 
" Follow thou Me." One apostle enjoys excellent 
health, while the whole life of another is tilled with 
sickness and pain. No matter: "Follow thou Me." 
Oppressed with care, despised by the world, while 
others are rich : " Follow thou Me." 



"Then gathered the chief priests aud the Pharisees a council, and 
said, What do we ? for this Man doeth many miracles. If we 
let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him : and the Ro- 
mans shall come and take away both our place and nation. 
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that 
same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor con- 
sider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for 
the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this 
spake he not of himself : but being high priest that year, he 
prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for 
that nation only, but that also He should gather together in 
one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then 



THE lord's miracles. 471 

from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him 
to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the 
Jews ; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, 
into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His dis- 
ciples."- John xi. 47-54:. 

We have already traced this narrative up to tlie 
point in which Mary meets witli Jesus outside of tlie 
little town where tliey live, and He is filled with 
indignation on seeing tlie tears of tlie hypocritical 
DQourners mingled with those of the pious sisters. 

"And said, Where have ye laid him ? They say 
unto Him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept." Why 
should Jesus weep, is a question that has been asked 
by Bible students for ages. And did He as man 
not have reason to weep ? " He who endured such 
contradiction of sinners against Himself," beholding 
such hypocrisy, and knowing that it was all insti- 
gated by that foul spirit that had from the beginning 
filled our world with deception, falsehood, murder, 
sorrow, and death. No wonder -that Jesus wept, 
when He saw the world so completely under the 
power of Satan, and all the terrible effects of the fall 
pass before His vision — sin and misery and death, — 
the seed of the serpent ever battling nnd warring 
with the seed of the woman, piercing, wounding, de- 
stroying. 

" Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how 
He loved him ; and some of them said, Could not 
this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, liave 
caused that even this man should not have died ? 
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh 
to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon 
it." Some of the Jews said, " See how He loved 



472 THE lord's miracles. 

liiin.'' Some supposed tlmt tliese were tears of sym- 
pathy alone, and that He was grieved for the loss of 
a dear friend. But others asked, " Could not this 
Man, which opened tlie eyes of tlie blind, liave 
caused that even this man sliould not have died ?" 
This was as much as to say, " If it were true, as they 
report, that He opened the eyes of the blind, what 
was there to prevent Him from causing tliat this 
man should not iiave died ?" We can expect nothing 
but a caviling spirit from sucli people as this. A 
few days before it was reported that Jesus had 
opened the eyes of one born blind. They would 
not believe it. ]^or do tliey believe now that He 
had power to prevent Lazarus from dying. 

''Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself 
cometh to the grave, it was a cave, and a stone 
lay upon it.'' Jesus was again filled with indigna- 
tion, and coming to tlie grave, at once commanded 
them to remove the stone from the mouth of the 
sepulchre. 

The description of eastern sepulchres has been 
given by travellers. Dr. Clark discovered, and 'has 
fully described, a nnml)er of sepulchres which extend 
along the side of the ravine to the south-west and 
west of Mount Zion. He describes them as a num- 
ber of subterranean clnunbers hewn with considerable 
art, each containing one or many repositories for tlie 
dead, like cisterns carved in the rock, upon the sides 
of the chambei'S ; the doors are so low that, to look 
into any one of them, it is necessary to stoop, and in 
some instances to creep on the hands and knees. 
'^ Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and 



THE lord's miracles. 473 

stooping down lie beheld tlie linen clothes laid by 
themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at 
tliat which was come to pass." The tombs still ex- 
ist in the form of caverns, on the sides of the hills 
that rise from the shore of the lake. Thej extend 
at a distance for more than a mile from the present 
town. Where I have been in South America only 
wealthy people possess these vaults, the poorer peo- 
ple being buried in common graves. If the same 
custom prevailed in tlie east nn our Savior's time, it 
would indicate that this family was in no mean cir- 
cumstances. The large assemblage of mourners, and 
the very costly box of ointment with which Mary 
anoints our Savior's feet, are also indications that 
they were not wanting in this world's goods. 

"Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself cometh 
to tlie grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 
Jesus said, Take je away the stone. Martlia, the sis- 
ter of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by 
tliis time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four 
days. Jesus saitli unto her, Said I not unto thee 
tliaf if thou wouldest believe, tliou shouldest see the 
o^lorv of God." I can see notliin^ else indicated 
than a momentary lluctuation of Martlia's faith. 
She was already beginning to doubt our Lord's 
power, wlien she remembered that her brother had 
been dead four days, and consequently expresses her 
doubt, and is promptly answered by Jesus. I see 
no proof that tlie corpse was already fetid, corrupted, 
and that the worms were preying upon it. Such 
may have been tlie case, but I can find no proof for 
it. Tlie sepulchre was closed with a great stone, 



4:74 THE lord's miracles. 

and Martha had no means of knowing what was the 
condition of the corpse. She speaks from a general 
experience of what would have been the result of a 
corpse lying four days in a torn!) in a warm climate. 
But this corpse may have been preserved from all 
corruption. 

"Then they took away the stone from the place 
wliere the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His 
eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast 
heard Me. And I knew tliat Thou liearest Me al- 
ways; but because of tlie people which stand by I 
said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent 
Me. And when Pie thus had spoken, He cried with 
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.'' Notice this 
this praj'er. A prayer to the Father — not asking 
anything — giving thanks only that the Father hears 
Hin), clearly indicating that the miracle that He 
would perform wonld be by His own power, and 
yet proving to the Jews that stood by that He was 
united with the Father in heaven. 

"And when He thus had spoken. He cried with 
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that 
was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with 
grave clothes; and his face was bound about with a 
napkin. Jesus saith unto them. Loose him, and let 
him go." "Lazarus, come forth" is spoken in His 
own power. The same voice that called Lazai-ns 
from the grave is that voice which calls sinners from 
spiritual death, and will call the dead to Himself 
when He shall descend from heaven with a shout; 
and no doubt this same voice is that which is called 
elsewhere the "trump of the archangel." 



THE LORD S MIRACLES. 4 i 5 

"Loose him, and let him go" was merely to loosen 
tlie grave clothes, so that lie could move freely, and 
walk wdth them back to liis home in Bethany; for it 
must be remembered that, according to Jewish cus- 
tom, these graves were a long way from their dwell- 
ings. 

"Then manj^ of the Jews which came to Mary, 
and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed 
on Him. But some of them went their ways to the 
Pharisees, and told them what thino^s Jesus had 
done." John here drops the narrative, so far as 
Lazai'us and his family are concerned, and goes on 
to tell us what effect this miracle had on the Jews. 
"Some believed on Him." Instead of being per- 
secutors, as they had hitherto been, desiring to stone 
Jesus, they now became believers; but others went 
and related what had been done to the Pharisees. 

"Tiien gathered the chief priests and the Phari- 
sees a counsel, and said, What. do we? for this man 
doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, 
all men will believe on Him ; and the Pomans shall 
come and take away both our place and nation." 
And now observe the conduct of these wicked men. 
They admit that He is performing many miracles, 
and in doing so admit His just claim to the Messiah- 
siiip; but just here worldly interest steps in, and 
justice is gacr^ed and blindfolded. These would be 
holy man can see nothing but their own interest, and 
they are willing to sell the King of Israel — yes, and 
their own souls, too — for the sake of a small quantity 
of Satan's gold. And oh ! how many men to-day 
sell their characters, and their interest in heaven, 



476 THE LOEirS MIRACLES. 

and tlie Loi-d Jesns, and the Cliurcli, and its inter- 
ests, and their own souls also, for a few ounces of 
shining metal. A few soi'did pleasures here in tliis 
life are of far more value to them than a heaven of 
eternal joj. 

"And one of them, named Caiaphas, heing the 
higli priest that same year, said unto tliem, Ye know 
notliing at all. Xor consider that it is expedient for 
us that one man should die for tlie people, and that 
the whole nation perisli not. And this spake»he not 
of himself, but being high priest that year, he pro- 
phesied tliat Jesus should die for that nation; and 
not for that nation only, but tliat also He sliould 
iiratlier toii^ether in one tlie cliildrcn of God that 
were scattered abroad. Tlien from thac day fortli 
they took counsel together for to put Him to death. 
Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the 
Jews; but went thence into a country near to tlie 
wildeiness, into a city called E})liraim, and there 
continued with His disciples." Here we have a ver- 
itable prophecy delivered by a bold, bad man. God 
can use human instramentality to give true prophe- 
cies of coming events. Balaam's prophecy wafe not 
only a magnificent prophecy, but it was a ti'ue pro- 
phecy, The inscription written by Pilate, and placed 
upon the cross, was not only a prophec}', but it was 
a true prophecy. We find no difficulty here. John 
says that he was "high priest that same year," and 
so'.ne have thought that they found a discrepancy 
here, because it is well known that Caiaphas was 
chief priest for ten years. Some have answered 
this, by saying that the office of high priest was 



THp] lord's miracles. 4:77 

bought aud sold by the Romans every year; but I 
do not tliink tliat John refers to this. The meaning 
is simply this, that he was high priest at that time. 

"The children of God that were scattered abroad," 
I do not think refers to the Gentiles, as many com- 
mentators have supposed, but only to those Jews 
who were scattered in foreign countries, and such 
Gentiles as had become proselytes to their religion. 
This, I think, is the fjilfilment of tlie prophecy, as 
far as the Jewish mind was concerned. Prophecies 
that the Gentiles should be gathered in through the 
death of Christ are abundant in the Old Testament, 
but the Jews of that period never dreamed that it 
would be done in the way it was. 

"Then from that day forth they took counsel to- 
gether for to put Him to doatli." Without any 
sense of justice whatever, they seek to put Jesus to 
death. They never inquire whether He is guilty or 
not; they never inquire whether they have a right 
to put Him to death or not; but settling down upon 
the positive fact that prophecy had condemned Him 
to death, they considered that they had a perfect 
rio:]it to constitute themselves His executioners. It 
is just this superficial view — this narrow, cramped, 
hard-hearted, bull-headed disposition — that induces 
thousands at the present day to believe anything and 
everything rather than believe the truth, because 
tlie truth, like hidden treasures, requires to ])e exca- 
vated and examined, and may be found entirely 
different from all our preconceived notions of riglit 
and wrono;. We find at work in the hearts of these 
scribes and Pharisees three great elements wJiich 



4Y8 THE lord's miracles. 

Satan ever uses to blind, and bind, and lead captive 
at his will. Firsts worldly interest. Fearing to lose 
their worldly fortunes, or in some way get themselves 
in bad odor with the Romans, and thus affect their 
social standing or their fortunes, they do not hesitate 
to do that wluch is an enormous crime — no less than 
murder — put to death an innocent man, they them- 
selves being the guilty offcndcis. Second^ pride. 
They are not willing to humble themselves. If the 
Homans are to be conquered, it must be done by a 
noble display of arms. They were a warlike nation, 
and had been from the days of Moses. The doctrine 
of Jesus, if accepted by the luition, would annihilate 
this martial spirit. It would turn the nation into a 
nation of women, and thus make it an easy prey to 
the Roman arms. No; this man must be put to 
death. His inHnence is most pernicious. His peace 
measures will ruin onr nation. Thirds that listless, 
lazy, idle spirit that accepts for granted every plau- 
sible story the devil chooses to circulate, without 
examining a truth, and yet, as they receive it, it was 
a falsehood. And so with thousands of errors: 
truth out of place. 



PART FOURTH. 



SERMONS. 



I. SAMSON, A TYPE Of A CHAMPION 
OF THE LAW. 

"But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought 
him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass ; and 
he did grind in the prison house." — Judges xvi. 21. 

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to 
obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether of sin 
unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ?" — Romans 
vi. 16. 

OUR subject is a difficult one. The character of 
of Samson is a puzzle to the believer and the 
sport of the infidel. It is a subject that will bear 
study; and the more it is investigated, the more in- 
structive does it appear. Samson is a remarkable 
character. He is apparently a sliapeless block of 
granite that can be fitted nowliere in the spiritual 
building of the Cliristian religion. His place tliere 
is difficult to find. By some, Samson is supposed 
to be a type of Christ. Roman Catliolic interpreters 
so regard him, and in this opinion they are followed 
by Protestant expositors. Great error prevails in 
explaining the types of tlie Old Testament. Many 
expositors are constantly on the watch for types of 
Christ, and wherever they find something that ap- 



480 SERMONS. 

pears on the surface to bear some analogy to an 
event in tlie life of our Savior, tliey imagine that 
tlie}^ have discovered a type of Him. Yet tiie very 
next chapter, being a portion of the life of tlie same 
individual, might just as appropriately be explained 
as a type of the devil. 

By many, David is supposed to be a type of Chri&t; 
but can tliat licentions king, who committed adultery 
with Uriah's wife, and then murdered lier husband, 
be a tj'pe of the pu^e and holy Savior? Still less 
can Samson be so regarded. Can any one believe 
that tliis bio:, bhinderinii: fool was a tvoe of the Re- 

C?' O €.'1 

deemer ? 

Now, in order that we may understand tlie Old 
Testament types, we must class them, and arrange 
each in its own separate department, and then 
w-e shall see that each one fills its own proper sphere 
from beginning to end. 

Samson belongs to a period commencing with the 
entrance into Canaan and ending with David, which 
appears to represent a carnal priesthood under the 
law; while David, on the other hand, appears to in- 
troduce a period typical of a ministry under the 
gospel. 

Samson, then, may be called a cJutmpion of the 
law; or, perhaps better still, ou7' Adamic nature 
under the laiv. David, again, may represent a 
champion under the first teachings of the gospel, and 
some parts of his life bear a close resemblance to 
some things in the life of Christ; but it is because 
this king of Israel was a type of the gospel believer., 
and consequently reflected more or less the image of 



SAMSON. 



481 



Clirist, who worketh in the believer to will and to do 
of His own good pleasure. 

Who, then, was Samson? To what dispensation 
does lie belong? to that of the law or the gospel? 
What does liis name signify ? A servant. Now, the 
law holds in bondage, the gospel makes free. Sam- 
son, tlie servant, represents bondage. He was 
typical, then, of servitude to the law. 

The Jew was born in Canaan, which is a type of 
the dominion of the law; he was consecrated to God 
at his birth, circumcised on the eighth day, ate no 
unclean food, observed all the requirements of the 
ceremonial law, and continued to remain pure through 
life by means of this observance. If he sinned against 
the moral law, the observance of the ceremonial law 
w^as necessary to liis forgiveness and restoration. 
This was his strengtli. The ceremonial law is a type 
of Christ. 

Samson was a Nazarite from his birth. His 
parents had consecrated liim by a solemn vow to 
God. He was to drink no wine, nor was his hair ever 
to be shorn. The moment that vow was thus broken, 
he lost his strength, just as a common Jew became 
impure the moment he broke the ceremonial law. 

Now, the whole of Samson's life unfolds itself to 
our view. On his way to Timnath, a lion met liim, 
and we are told that ''The Spirit of the Lord came 
mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would 
have rent a kid." Now Satan, who goes about as a 
roaring lion, can have no povt^er to injure where God's 
law is not transgressed. If not n:iorally and actually 
so, the Jew was pure by that which is typified by the 
21 



482 SERMONS. 

ceremonial law. But if they neglect tliis purifica- 
tion, they are unclean and guilty. 

Then, again, we are told that the Spirit of the 
Lord came upon him, and he slew a thousand Philis- 
tines with the jawbone of an ass. An easy thing to 
do, so long as he kept himself pure by observing the 
vow of the JNazarite. Human strength can proclaim 
the law. The tongue of many weaker than Samson 
has slain its tliousands, and then deliberately satislied 
its own thirst from the antidote of the law. But 
when slain by the law, it requires a mightier than 
Samson to make them alive aii^ain. God is not in 
the earthquake, but in the still, small voice. 

Then Samson goes down to the city of Gaza, and 
the Philistines shut him in and put a guard around 
the gates. But he arose at midnight, and took the 
two gates and the two posts and bar and carried them 
to a hill before Hebron, seven miles distant. Sam- 
son had sinned — committed a grievous sin — yet he 
lost not his strength. All went well till his Naza- 
rite vow was broken. 

It is not the breaking of the law that condemns 
the soul to death, but the refusal of the antidote. 
Even tlie gates of hell cannot prevail against him 
whose strength is in Jehovah, even be it but the 
shadow as possessed by Old Testament believers and 
pious children of the present day. 

But Samson falls into Delilah's hands, and day by 
day she wove the net around him, until his seven 
locks were shorn away, and his strength gone; and 
his eyes are put out, and he is made to grind in the 
prison house. 



SAMSON. 483 

And who was Delilah? Commentators sav tliat 
Delilali was sin. Not so. Samson had sinned be- 
fore, but no such dii'eful results had followed. What 
made the difference? Delilali had taken away the 
antidote to sin. Delilah is unbelief — that foul, pol- 
luted monster, mibelief. 

That Nazarite vow, which had shielded him from 
the power of the lion, and had torn away the gates 
of Gaza, and preserved him from so many dangers, 
is now removed; and now the law comes down upon 
him with all its force, crushing him beneath its 
weight. " Whosoever falls upon this rock shall be 
broken, but on wdiomsoever it falls, it shall grind 
him to powder." The law without an antidote is a 
mighty millstone around the sinner's neck. 

It was wdiile asleep that his hair Avas shorn. .Un- 
belief puts to sleep. Had he remained awake, no 
such result would have followed. Behold here a 
warning of the danger of spiritual sleep! While 
men slept, the enemy sowed tares. While the dis- 
ciples slept, the Savior was betrayed into the hands 
of His enemies. While the virgins slept, the cry 
came, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh." 

When his hair was shorn, "The Lord departed 
from him.'' The Lord depaits from those who re- 
ject the law's antidote. Even while in the company 
of the harlot of Gaza, the Lord was with Samson; 
but when his vow was broken, he was left abandoned 
and alone, weak, helpless as an infant ; and the 
Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and 
brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with 



484 SERMONS. 

fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. 
Unhehef delivers over into the liands of sin. 

Alas! poor Samson! What a mighty power sin 
is to put out the ejes. Oh ! how it blinds men to 
tlie interests of their souls, to their homes, families, 
friends, honesty, happiness, eternal destiny ! Oh ! 
how it binds with brazen fetters, fretting their wa}'' 
througli the flesli. Oh! liow it enslaves. "Ye are 
sold under sin," — slaves to sin. It sends its victim 
to the prison liouse of despair, grinding away in 
agony and despair liere, and in deatli consigning liim 
to the prison-house of hell. 

Later, a feast is held in honor of Dagon, their god, 
and they rejoice over tlieir enemy, even sending for 
the poor, blind captive that the}' might make sport 
of him. But in tlie meantime he had repented, liis 
hair had grown, his Nazarite vow was being gradu- 
ally restored to him, and his strength was return- 
ing; and lie prays — oh! we can sympathize with 
that prayer — "O Lord God, remember me, I pray 
Thee, and strengthen me, I pra}^ Thee, only this 
once, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the 
Philistines for my two eyes." And he takes hold 
of the pillars, and he bowed himself with all his 
might. 

The most wonderful thing in the whole history of 
this strange being is, that in avenging himself he 
himself dies with the uncircumcised. His own body 
lies mangled in that heap of ruins. 

When the champion of the law, killed by sin, re- 
turns to Christ, he dies for ever to sin. Saul of 



SAMSON. 485 

Tarsus, sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, and for many 
years tlie champion of the law persecuting the dis- 
ciples of Jesus, was the slave of sin, blind, fettered, 
and in prison ; but wlien tlie ruins of old Dagon's 
temple, like a lightning flash, fell crashing around 
him on the way to Damascus, Saul was killed — 
killed for ever. He wlio was gathered up out of 
the ruins was not Saul the champion of the law, but 
Paul the apostle, the champion of the gospel. 
When we are freed from the law by a return to 
Christ, the carnal nature is killed ; it dies along 
with its sins. Oh ! ye who to-day grind in the 
prison-house of sin, cry to Him who is mighty to 
save. He will give you the victory over the carnal 
nature, and free vou from the law. Hear what He 
says: "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hatli made me free from the law of sin and 
death ; and if Christ be in you, the body is dead be- 
cause of sins ; but the spirit is life, because of right- 
eousness. For as many as are led by the Spirit of 
God, they are tlic sons of God ; for ye have not re- 
ceived the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye 
have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we 
cry, Abba Fatlier. The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spii'it that we are the children of God, and 
if children, then heirs ; heirs of God and joint heirs 
with Christ." 



486 SERMONS. 

11. DAVID A TYPE OF A CHAMPION OF 
THE GOSPEL. 

"So David prevailed' over the Philistine with a sling and with a 
stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him ; but there was 
no sword in the hand of David." — 1 Sam. xvii. 50. 

In Stephen's apology to the Jews, lie appears to 
classify the different periods of Jewisli history. 
One of these periods commences with tlie entrance 
of the people of Israel under the leadership of 
Joshua, and ends with the days of Saul. Then with 
David commences a new era. Joshua was a gen- 
eral at tlie head of an army. We may consider 
Joshua and Moses as performing the same work — 
Moses preparing the way for an entrance into 
Canaan, and Josliua completing the work, or rather 
carrying tlie warfare into the open field. Tlie his- 
tory of the Israelites durincj the times of the Judf'es 

•I ID O 

and under Saul appears to belong to this period. 
The wars recorded here were, wars with the Canaan- 
ites, while the wars after David's time were mostly 
political dissensions among themselves — civil wars. 
David was in reality the first legitimate king. Up to 
this time the nation appears to liave been typically 
subject to Christ, more in His character of a priest 
than of a kin<j:. Now His character of a sovereign 
is introduced. True, tliere liad been two kings over 
Israel before this time. Abimelecli was for a time 
a sort of self-constituted king, but his autliority was 
only over a few wicked followers, and he soon came 
to an untimely end. 

You remember how Saul was made king. The 



DAVID. 



48T 



people bad become tired of being ruled by a priest, 
and demanded a king. Saul was given to them. 
Saul was not the leo'itimate kins^ that God chose as 
a representative of His own Son. A vial of oil was 
poured over Saul. A whole horn of oil over David. 
The name "David" means beloved. Throughout 
the prophecies and the Kew^ Testament reference is 
made to David in intimate connection with Christ. 
Christ is called the Son of David, and David's Lord, 
and represented at sitting upon the throne of David, 
while Ezekiel speaks of Christ as though He w^ere 
David himself. No such reference is ever made to 
Saul. 

You will see at once a perfect analogy between 
the kingship of Saul, ending a priestly dominion, 
commencing well and fading away in dishonor, to 
be followed by a king who rules well, and whose 
office is represented in prophetic language as one 
that is eternal, and the fading away of the old Mo- 
saic dispensation, containing but a germ or shadow 
of regeneration, to be followed by the kingly office 
of Christ in the ]^ew Testament dispensation. 

Some time before David's conquest over Goliath, 
lie had been anointed by Samuel to be king over 
Israel. He was the Lord's anointed one among his 
brethren. Christ was anointed by the Holy Ghost 
at His baptism. Saul sat upon the throne at the 
time of David's anointing, and maintained his posi- 
tion for some time after; in fact, tlie victory over 
Goliath was gained while Saul was yet king. Christ 
was anointed for the gospel ministry under the old 



488 



SERMONS, 



covenant, and died under the old covenant — suffer- 
ing without the gate. Until David l}ad received this 
anointing he remained in his father's house, tending 
his father's flock. Until Christ was anointed He 
was only known as the carpenter's Son. In like 
manner the disciples ?dso were commanded to tarry 
at Jerusalem until anointed by the Holy Spirit. 
Aftei- heiijg anointed David went out to the battle. 
His brethren received him not, l>iU ridiculed and de- 
rided him. Christ came unto His own brethren, 
and they received Him not — they despised and re- 
jected Him. 

The apostles carried the glad tidings of a risen 
Savior to their own brethren, the Jews, with the 
same result. And while upon the battlefield the 
champion of the Philistines appears, and defies the 
armies of the living God, — blasphemes the God 
of Israel. And David's heart is filled with indig- 
nation. He hears the reward offered. Tiie king's 
daughter is the promised reward. Christ's reward 
is the Church — the daughter of the Great King. 
David rejects the warrior's weapons. The sword, 
and coat of mail, and helmet, and shield are all cast 
aside. He chooses his own wca})ons. These are five 
smooth stones out of the running brook. A running 
brook, yon know, is an emblem of the gospel. Christ 
rejected all carnal weapons. The Jews supposed 
that the Messiah would come to repeat the con- 
quests of Joshua. They were willing to make Him 
a king. Had He given permission, thousands would 
have been ready to draw the sword, as was Peter. 



DATID. 489 

"Not by power nor might, but by My Spirit saitli 
the Lord." He goes to meet the champion, and is 
ridiculed (vs. 43.) David goes in the name of the 
Lord of hosts (vs. 45.) David hurls a stone at the 
giant, and it sinks into his foreliead. Mind, wo 
are not told that it struck him in the breast, or loins, 
or hand, or foot. Christ crushed the serpent's head. 
And when the giant was fallen upon his face on tlie 
ground David ran to him. He cut off his head with 
his own sword. 

Stop here a moment. Think a moment. You 
HAVE ALL SEEN A RoMAN swoRD ! Fix it in jour im- 
agination. Now turn it point downwards, and what 
do you beliold ? A cross. 

Satan comes against the Prince of David with a 
Roman cross, but the cross is turned into a flaming 
sword, pursuing and burning the enemy even down 
to the lowest hell. "Tliey that take the sword shall 
perish by the sword." x\gain and again Satan's ar- 
mies have rushed forth from the gates of his empire, 
armed with the sword, to exterminate the Church of 
Christ. They have all perished by the sword, and 
tlie Church lives; she lias triumphed. The enemy's 
champion slain, David's brethren are filled with 
courMge, and pursue the enemj-. The Christian tri- 
umphs. And now we see the champion of Israel 
marching proudly away from the battlefield, carry- 
ing in his own right hand the bloody head of the 
giant enemy of Israel's God. Look at it; scan these 
features, if you know anything about spiritual ph}'- 
siognomy. Oh, the horrid monster, sin ; and this is 



490 SERMONS. 

sin in its most terrible shape, for the name of Goliath 
means rebellion. Crueltj, and murder, and lust, 
and hatred, and I'evenge — all, all are clearly delin- 
eated there. But fear not; the monster is dead. 
"The sting of deatl) is sin, and the strength of sin is 
tlie law; but thanks be to God vvhlcli giveth us the 
victory tlirough our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Bi'etliren, the battlefield is before us. Are you 
ready to engage in the conflict? If not, tarry with 
your father's slieep on the mountain side until yon 
liave learned the use of the sling, and received the 
anointing of the Spirit from on high. If you have 
received tliat anointing, let no rude hand detain you. 
Put not on Saul's armor. Yonr brethren may in- 
sinuate that it would be better for you to see that 
your father's few sheep are not subject to the tender 
mercies of the lion and the bear, rather than to 
dream of liberating Israel's flock from the champion 
of Philistia. Heed them not. Onward to tlie bat- 
tle. Choose for yourself good, smooth arguments 
from the running fountain — God's living word — and 
hurl them at the head of the enemy. Do not leave 
the work half done. When the enemy falls, make 
sure work of him. Cut his head off. Crush out 
the Goliath of rebellion. Allovv none but the le- 
gitimate King of Israel to sit on David's throne. 
And when the victory is sure, then we will sing witii 
the maidens of Israel, "Saul hath slain his thousands, 
and David his ten thousands." 



JOSHUA. 491 

III. JOSHUA'S CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 

"Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus 
into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave ont be- 
fore the face of our fathers unto the days of David." — Acts 
vii. 45. 

The Jesus spoken of in our text is Joshua, the 
son of Nun — Jesus being the Greek, and Joshua the 
Hebrew form, of the same name. 

Our subject is the taking of Palestine by Israel 
under Joshua; a subject but seldom presented from 
the pulpit, and but little understood bj the people. 
That it is attended with difficulties cannot be denied. 
Infidels have used it in assailing the truth of the 
Bible, and for vituperating the character of God, 
representing Him as giving countenance to cruelty, 
injustice, periid}^, and murder. It has been a 
'' stumbling stone and rock of offense even in the 
Churcli." Even in our own denomination, minis- 
ters have been accused of preaching erroneous doc- 
trines, and put on trial for denying the inspiration 
of that portion of Scripture that records this con- 
quest. Witness, for example, the trial of Kev. David 
Swing by his Presbytery. 

In order tliat we may understand the subject 
thoroughly, let us, in the first place, consider its 
historical character; second, its typical character; 
and third, tlie lessons to be derived from it. 

First, in a historical point of view. Can Joshua 
and his followers be justified for the course they 
pursued? I think they can. First, we must consider 
the dispensation under which Joshua lived. We have 
derived our ideas of mercy and benevolence from the 



492 SERMONS. 

gospel. Joshua knew no gospel. He was a blind 
slave to tlie law. The great type of tlie gospel was 
tlie water used in their purifications, but never used 
until the victim had been condemned to death by a 
sprinkling of blood. Tliere were a few outsiders 
that he could show mercy to, but to those born and 
raised within the bounds of the land promised to his 
fathers no mercy was to be shown. 

In the first place, God had given the land of Ca- 
naan to the Israelites, and God lias a perfect right 
to give His own territory to whom He pleases. It 
was first promised to Abraham when the Lord 
brought him out of the land of Harau, and after- 
wards confirmed by a solemn covenant. It was 
again promised to Isaac. It was also promised to 
Jacob. Tiien Moses was especially called of God, 
who appeared to him in the burning bush, to go 
down into Egypt. Referring to the fathers, God 
says: "'I have established my covenant with them, 
to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their 
pilgrimage wiierein they were strangers." These 
promises were repeated again and agai:) during the 
whole forty years. 

We see, then, that God gave the land to Israel, 
with its inhabitants and all it contained, by will and 
deed, and solemn covenant, not to do with the in- 
habitants what they pleased, but what He com- 
manded. And certainly no one will question God's 
right to dispose of His own property as He pleases. 

In the second place, tlie seven nations that inhab- 
ited Canaan were destined by God Himself to be 
destroyed. They were wicked idolaters. God told 



.TOSHIJA. 493 

Abraham that his seed must dwell in Egypt; '*for," 
says He, " the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet 
full." And Moses tells them that it was not for 
their own rigliteousness that the Lord brought them 
into this land, but " for the wickedness of these na- 
tions the Lord dotli drive them out from before 
thee." 

Now, no one will deny God's right to destroy a 
people for their wickedness. Nor will any one den}^ 
His right to choose His own instruments for their 
destruction. He had the same riffht to commission 
Joshua and his follow^ers to destroy them as He had 
to send the waters of the flood, or to destroy Sodom 
and Gomorrah. 

In the third place, the Canaanitcs were not igno- 
rant of their condemnation. Moses, in one of his 
prayers, says, the Canaanites ''have heard that Thou, 
Lord, art auiong this people, and that Thou, Lord, 
art seen face to face, and that Thy cloud standetli 
ov^er them, and that Thou goest before them, by day- 
time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by 
night." Then, again, when he sent messengers unto 
the king of Edom, asking permission to pass through 
his territory, he says : ''Thou knowest all the travail 
that hath befallen us; how our fathers went down 
into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and 
the Egyptians vexed us and our fathers; and when 
we cried unto the Lord, He heard our voice, and 
sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of 
Egypt." 

Then, again, Balaam the prophet speaks of him- 
self as one "which heard the words of God, aftd 



494r , SERMONS. 

knew the knowledge of the Most High." And then 
says : " There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and 
a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the 
corners of Moab, and destroy all the cliildren of 
Shetli." 

Again, tlie liarlot Rahab speaks thus: "1 know 
that the Lord hath given yon the land, and that 
your terror has fallen upon us, and tliat all tlie in- 
habitants of tlie land faint because of you; for we 
have heard how the Lord dried up the Red sea for 
you when ye came out of Egypt, and wliat ye did 
unto tlie two kings of the Amorites that were on 
the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye 
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard 
these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there 
remain any more courage in any man because of 
you; for the Lord your God, He is God, in heaven 
above and in earth beneath." 

Then, again, when the Gibeonites met the Israel- 
ites they confessed to Joshua, "From a very far 
country thy servants are come, because of the name 
of the Lord thy God; for we have heard of the fame 
of Him, and all that He did in Kgypt, and all that 
He did to the two kings of the Aniorites." Then, 
when they were accused of their decej)tion, " they 
answered Joshua and said : Because it was certainly 
told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God com- 
manded his servant Moses to give you all the land, 
and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from 
before you ; therefore we were sore afraid of our 
lives because of you, and have done this thing." 
* Now, in the fourth place, the Israelites did not 



JOSHUA. 495 

destroy the Canaanites by their own will, but by the 
direct commandment of God. They were strictly 
given to understand that they were soldiers fighting 
under Him as tlieir chief and leader, and not for 
themselves. 

God says to Moses, "/ will bring you into the 
land;" "/ will dwell among the children of Israel, 
and will be their God." And He says to the people, 
'•Zwill send an angel before thee, and / will drive 
out the Canaanite." ^^ The Zord will drive out these 
nations before you." "There shall no man be able 
to stand before you ; for the Zord you?' God shall 
lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all 
the land that ye shall tread upon, as He hatli said 
unto you." 

And then, at the close of Joshua's career, God 
tells them, "The Lord your God is He that hath 
fought for you." "And I sent the hornet before 
yon, which drave them out from before you;" and 
warns them that if they forsake Him, He Avill de- 
stroy them. "As the nations which the Lord de- 
stroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish, because 
ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord 
your God." Then they were strictly commanded 
to do nothing but what they were ordered to do by 
God Himself. 

When the Israelites, after the return of the spies, 
found that they iiad sinned, God told them that 
"whoever did anything presumptuously should be 
cut olf from among his people." l^ow, I repeat, 
that men under the leadership of God Himself com- 
mit no sin when they do just what He has com- 



496 SERMONS. 

manded them to do. And it is acknowledged by 
all tliat God has the same right to destroy a nation 
by human instrumentality that He has by earth- 
quake and famine. 

But then there were thousands of infants perished 
in Canaan. These could not have been idolaters? 
So there were in Sodom; so there were in the ante- 
diluvian world. They did not pei'ish on account of 
any crime that they had committed, but as a result 
of Adam's sin — a curse which Christ did not re- 
move, and never promised to remove. He did not 
promise to cure man's wounded lieel. The deatli 
of the body is not the penalty of the sin of the soul. 
Believers all die. Tlie punishment of those adults 
was not the mere death of the body. The children 
were all saved. The Bible teaches it as plainly as 
it does the doctrine of the Trinity. 



lY. ORIGINAL SIN: SECOND PAET OF 
JOSHUA'S CONQUEST. 

* ' For I was alive without the law ouce : but wheu the command- 
ment came, sin revived, and I died." — Kom. vii. 9. 

Paul, in this passage, means just what he says. 

Those who say that Paul was born dead in trespasses 

and in sins deny this, and say that it was Paul's own 

self-esteem that was killed. Nothing of the kind. 

Paul's death was not on the way to Damascus, nor 

was he killed by the more than noon-day glory 

which he then beheld. He had sat at Gamaliel's 

feet, and had been killed by the law, the sword of 



ORIGINAL SIN. 497 

the Spirit, as much as any Caiiaanite ever was car- 
nally by Joshua's sword. 

But I promised this morning to examine the typi- 
cal character of Joshua's conquest. 

Most expositors f consider the books of the Bible 
beginning with Joshua and ending with Nehemiah 
as merely historical. Christ knew no such distinction 
as tliat would imply. "Moses and the prophets," 
according to Him, compreliend all of the Old Tes- 
tament. If you make the book of Joshua a mere 
history, then you must condemn me for heresy, for 
I cannot believe that, as a mere history, it was in- 
spired for all time. Make it a prophecy, and I can 
accept it as the w^ord of God, inspired for all time. 

The forty years in the desert were a type of that 
period represented by the court of the tabernacle. 
Canaan, tlien, represents that period indicated by 
tlie sanctuary. The sword of Joshua was typical of 
the law. Tlie law knows no mercy. Canaan now 
is the Christian world. Those to wliom God sliows 
some mercy are tliose outside of the Christian world, 
whose only law is tlie light of nature. These know 
not the law of Moses. The law kills. So says 
Joshua, and so says Paul. God's word declares it 
ev^ery where. 

If I am rififht in re^ardino; Joshua's sword as a 
type of the law, then the Canaanites were alive be- 
fore the law reached them, for what is already dead 
'cannot be killed. Now, if you will bear with me a 
few minutes, I think that I can present the doctrine 
of original sin in so clear a light that all can under- 



498 SERMONS. 

stand it. There have been in the Cluirch three dif- 
ferent hypotheses in regard to original sin : 

First, Pelagianism, which considers it dishonorable 
to God to impute Adam's sin to his posterity. It 
acknowledges that all men are sinners, and begin to 
shi as soon as they are capable of moral action. This 
system has its difficulties. Infants suffer and die, 
proving, them to be under the penalty of Adam's 
sin. It is a system that is nowhere taught in the 
Bible, and has been condemned as heresy by the 
councils of the Church. 

The second, Semi-Pelagianism. This doctrine 
teaches that the posterity of Adam inherit from him 
his mortal body and sinful nature, but that they arc 
not exposed to any penalty until tliey have com- 
mitted actual trans^-ression. It admits natural cor- 
ruption, but not natural depravity. 

But this system does not correspond with the 
Scriptures. Although the death of the body is not a 
penalty for any actual transgression in a son of 
Adam, vet the Bible teaches that it is a result of sin. 
Moreover, it is contrary to such passages as these: 
"Wherefore, jis by one man sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon 
all men, for that all have sinned." "As it is w^ritten, 
there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none 
that nndorstandeth; there is none that seeketh after 
God." "They are all gone out of the way; they 
are together become unprofitable; there is none that 
doeth good, no, not one." "For there is not a just 
man upon the earth that doeth good, and that sin- 
neth not." 



ORIGINAL 81N. 499 

Here I would say that I present this statement of 
Serai- Pehigi an ism as I suppose it to have been taught 
by its advocates. No two autliors agree as to its ex- 
act character. Arminius is said to have accepted 
its doctrines, and even at this late date there is a di- 
versity of opinion on this point. 

We now come to what is called Calvinism. This 
you will find in synopsis in the answer to the six- 
teenth question in the Sliorter Catechism; "The 
covenant being made with Adam, not only for him- 
self, but for his posterity, all mankind descending 
from him by ordinary generation sinned in him, and 
fell with him in his first transgression." And the 
passages of Scripture nsually quoted in support of 
it are: "In Adam all die." "By one man's disobe- 
dience many were made sinners." " By the oifense of 
one judgment came upon" all men to condemnation." 

But this system presents its difficulties, nor do 
Calvinists pretend to deny it. Rev. Samuel Miller, 
a D. D. and professor, saj^s, (I quote his own words) : 
"It is not pretended that the Calvinistic system is 
free from all difficulties. When finite creatures are 
called to scan either the works or the revealed will 
of an Infinite Being, they mnst be truly demented 
if they expect to find nothing whicli they cannot 
comprehend. Accordingly, when we undertake to 
solve some of the difficulties which that sj^stem of 
Christian doctrine usually styled Calvinism pre- 
sents, it cannot be denied that 'such knowledge is 
too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain 
to it.'" 

The difficulty here is very palpable indeed, and is 



500 SERMONS. 

not in Gol's word, nor in the clear statement of man's 
original sin, l)nt in tlie distorted view taken of the 
operations of the hiw and the gospel. The passages 
from Scripture are not properly quoted. "As in 
Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
"<SAa/Z" is in the future tense. "By the offense of 
one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; 
even so by tlie righteousness of one the free gift came 
upon all men nnto justification of life." "Christ 
died for all." "He tasted death for every man." 
"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for 
ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." 
"Behold the Lamb of God." "As was the trans- 
gression, so is the free gift." By Cin-ist every child 
of Adam is niade alive from Adam's sin. Then the 
law comes and kills thein. To say that the law can 
kill a dead man is sheer nonsense. To say that they 
are born dead in trespasses and sins is to give the 
lie to the whole system of divine revelation. Evei-y 
drop of blood that Christ shed contradicts it. Every 
sacrifice on Jewish altars denies it. Evei'y man, 
woman and child that perished by Joshua's sword 
opposes itw All cry out against such a theory. We 
have only to compare Dr. Miller's language with 
that of St. Paul, in order to see the difficulty as 
plain as a sunbeam. The Princeton professor says, 
"That the gospel finds all men by nature dead in 
tre.^passes and sins, destitute alike of the image and 
favor of God." Can a child be born dead in tres- 
passes? You might as well say a child can be born 
a murderer, or a forger. The gospel never finds 



ORIGINAL SIN. 501 

men in a state of nature. It finds them dead — 
killed b}' tlie law, and restores them to lite. 

Paul savs, referrincr to men wlio had been killed 
bj tlie law, '^And yoii hath he quickened who were 
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein ye walked ac- 
cording to the course of this world, according to the 
prince of the power of the air ;" and then, referring 
to man's natural condition, compai'ing the Jews (to 
which he belonged) with tlie Gentiles, he says, '* We 
were children of wrath even as others." 

Christ restores all to life from Adam's sin. The 
law kills them. Unless restored to life by the gos- 
pel, they remain dead to alk eternity — buried in the 
second death. To teach that all children are born 
dead in trespasses and sins, and remain so until quick- 
ened by the gospel, is to teach infant damnation. 
To say that they are saved by election, is to lay upon 
election a burden which it is no more able to bear 
than tlie infant Samson was to bear the gates of 
Gaza. Christ's blood alone, not election, can save 
them; and if that blood is only applied to them 
through the hearing of the gospel, then they are 
lost. Calvin taught no such doctrine. He taught 
that they are saved by a supernatural cleansing given 
to all the children of Adam by the grace of Christ. 
He says: "For if they must be left among the chil- 
dren of Adam, they must be left in death. On the 
contrary, Ciirist commands them to be brought to 
Him. Why ? Because He is Life. To give them 
life, therefore, He makes them pai'takers of Him- 
self." 

Here Calvin speaks the truth, but he docs not tell 



502 SERMONS. 

US how this supernatural cleansing comes. We say, 
then, that in Adam all die ; in Christ all are made 
alive. But the Bible speaks of a second death. The 
law comes and kills them. The gospel restores them 
to life. Now we understand the words of the text, 
" Sin revived." The sin of Adam revived under the 
law, and spiritu^d death was the consequence. 



Y. MELCIIISEDEC. 



"The Lord swear and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever 
after the order of Melchisedec." — Heb. vii. 21. 

I FEEL fully pei'suaded that wlioever will examine 
tliis cliapter carefully cannot fail to see that Melchise- 
dec is Christ Himself; not the Jesus of the New 
Testament, hut the Jehovah of tlie Old. 

Now, it is objected that if Melchisedec was not a 
type of Christ, and a mere man, tlien Ciirist could 
not be called " after the order of Melchisedec." Let 
us see if such is the case: 

Ist^ Besides the spiritual priesthood of all he- 
lievers, there are but two priesthoods mentioned in 
the Bible. The one is the reality and the other is 
the type. Now, Christ did not belong to the order 
of Aaron, but was of the tribe of Judah. Nor did 
Melchisedec belong to the order of Aaron. That 
Melchiseuec was not of the order of Aaron is posi- 
tive proof that his was not a typical priesthood. The 
Jews were a typical nation. From :^braham down, 
all the nation bears a typical relation to the new cov- 



MELCHISEDEC. 503 

enant ; but Mclchisedec did not belong to these, 
and therefore was not typical. Christ, then, not be- 
longing to the order of Aaron, but to the order of 
Melchiscdec, is shown to be one and the same with 
Melchisedec. 

2;i(i, The priesthood of Melcliisedecis eternal. (See 
verse 3.) It is usually said that his genealogy was 
unknown — that no one knew who his father and 
mother were. Paul does not express himself in 
such equivocal language as this. If Paul had in- 
tended to have told us that tlie father and mother 
were unknown, he would have used plainer language 
than this. Paul means to tell us tliat his priesthood 
is eternal. There is but one eternal priesthood, and 
that is not the order of Aaron, or any like him. 
This lano^uasre does not for a single moment admit 
the idea that the order of Melchisedec is temporary. 
It is eternal, and the text proves it. The order of 
Aaron was temporary, and this is the distinguishing 
feature which Paul presents here — that in which it 
was different from the priesthood of Christ and Mel- 
chisedec. 

'6rd^ Again, the names applied to Melchisedec be- 
long to Christ. (Yerse 2.) 

^ctli^ Again, Melchisedec was greater than Abra- 
ham. (Head from verse 4 to 11.) You see, then, 
that the whole priesthood of Levi paid tithes, recog- 
nizing a greater priest than any that ever existed in 
Israel. Who could this be but Christ? 

hth^ There is not a particle of proof that such a 
place as Salem existed in Abraham's time. Mount 



504: SERMOKS. 

Moriali is situated in Jerusalem; but it was not to a 
city that Abraham went to offer up Isaac. 

6th, Had there existed in a walled city of Judea 
in Abraham's time such a pure and holy priesthood 
there would have still been a remnant when Joshua 
entered that land. Remnants of the Samaritans 
exist to-day. The Nestorians, as descendants of the 
wise men of the east, still exist, l^ut there are no 
traces here, although tlie Scriptures tell us that his 
priesthood is eternal. 

7ih, We are told that Melchisedcc is a priest now 
(verse 3) — tliat he abideth continually. 

8M, Christ was not called to be a carnal priest. 
Paul feays, ^'For if He were on earth, He should not 
be a })riest, seeing that there are priests that offer 
gifts according to the law." Christ's priesthood, 
tlien, is spiritual. If Christ is called to be a priest 
after the order of Melchisedcc, tlien Melchisedec's 
priesthood is spiritual, and not carnal. This is the 
great point of difference between Christ and Aaron. 

9th, Melchisedec was a type — Christ, not a type. 

Against such overwlielming proof as this, is it not 
strange that men should have ever formed the 
erroneous idea that Melchisedec was not Christ? 

I think that one cause of this prevalent error has 
been that our theology teaches that Christ was bap- 
tized by John. They Jiave found some analogy be- 
tween this circumstance and the anointing received 
by Aaron's sons. But the analogy is broken, 
crumbles to dust, the moment that we consider that 
Christ was not a priest on earth. Christ's priest- 
hood is eternal, in a tabernacle not made by hands. 



MELCHISEDEC. 505 

Were Melchisedec a mere man, Christ could not 
be a priest after his order. The idea is contrary to 
all Scripture. He conld not be called a priest after 
the order of a man living in Abraham's time, any 
more than He could be called to the priesthood after 
the order of Pope Pius tlie IX. 

Christ was a Priest, called, chosen and anointed 
after the order of Melchisedec, before Abraham was 
born. His priesthood is as eternal as His own 
eternal throne, not alone through a future eternity? 
but through a past eternity as well. He has been 
King of Salem for ever. A Priest not made after 
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the 
power of an endless life. (Yerses 24 to 26.) 

He offered one sacrifice. What sacrifice did the 
imaginary man, Melcliisedec, offer? Was it one 
supreme antitypical sacrifice, or was it many typical 
ones, after the order of Aaron f "He by the grace 
of God tasted death for every man." "He, by one 
offering of Himself, hath perfected for ever them 
that are sanctified." 

"Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter 
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
living way, which He has consecrated for us, let us 
draw near with a true heart and full assurance of 
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science, and our bodies washed with pure water." 
This is symbolical language of the washing of our 
souls with the water of life. He stands before tlie 
mercy seat and ever liveth. 



22 



506 SERMONS. 

YI. CHKIST A KING. 



#=!<•••♦•« 



" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall behold 
the land that is very far off." — Isaiah xxxiii. 17. (Read 2 
Chron. xxxii.) 

Some have supposed that this prophecy referred 
to Hezekiah's restoration after the destruction of the 
Assyrian army, as I read to you in the introductory 
chapter. It is a matter of h"ttle consequence to us 
what was the literal, direct object of the prophec3\ 
We know very well that it refers to a time when 
Israel's king was depressed and afterwards exalted. 
Indirectly it is a prophecy of Christ's humiliation 
and exaltation. 

Many of the earliest prophecies of Scripture rep- 
resent Christ as a King. That personage who pre- 
sented himself to Abraham under the name of Mel- 
chisedec was no doubt Christ Himself. 

Abraham could pay no tribute to any petty king. 
That would be to recognize his autliority over a por- 
tion of the land which God had given by solemn 
covenant to himself. But it is objected that he was 
made like unto the Son of God. Yes, in the same 
sense that the Angel of the Covenant was like unto 
the Son of Mary. "Like unto" has a deeper mean- 
ing. Christ is often referred to as a king. David 
says, "The Lord is our defence, and the Holy One 
of Israel is our King. 

In the prophecy of Zechariah we find such lan- 
guage as the following: "E-ejoice greatly, O daugh- 
ter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; be- 
hold thy King cometh unto thee; He is just and 



CHRIST A KING. 507 

having salvation; lowly, and riding npon an ass, 
and npon a colt, the foal of an ass." These words 
were quoted b}^ the evangelists, and applied to Christ. 
At His birth, wise men came from the east inquir- 
ing, "Where is He tliat is born King of the Jews." 
At His crucifixion, Pilate asked Him, "Art Thou a 
king?' Then the First Person of tlie Trinity is re- 
presented as saying to Jesus, "Thy throne, O God, 
is for ever and ever." " He is the King of kings and 
Lord of lords." 

" Thine eyes shall behold the land." The land of 
Canaan is here directly referred to; — compared with 
Egypt and Babylon, a land flowing with milk and 
honey; free from Babylon's idolatry; free from 
Egypt's bondage and darkness; a land of rest after 
they had toiled through the burning sands of the 
desert; a land of victorious conquest; a land in 
which the magnificent temple was erected in whicli 
God revealed His glory to man. 

But an hour of depression has come. A foreign 
king sits upon the tlirone. This king exacts a heavy 
tribute, which he pays to the Roman empire. The 
country is filled with tax-gatherers. Tlieir merchants 
are scattered in foreign countries. Other temples 
have been built. Their sons are fighting as soldiers 
in Caesar's army. A golden eagle — symbol of Sa- 
tan's empire — lias been hung up in the inside, and 
over the temple gate. Their very money bears the 
image and superscription of Csesar. Theatres have 
been built, and filled with unclean beasts. Pollution 
is everywhere present. They could not even go to 
the market without coming in contact wdtli Gentile 



508 SERMONS. 

soldiers. Dogs were allowed to collect aronnd the 
houses of their rich men, and their hill sides were 
polluted with lierds of swine. 

During tliis period there appeared among them a 
young man, followed hy a few ignorant fishermen, 
and waited upon by a few obscure women. He ob- 
served the law carefully, but paid no respect to the 
learned sanctimonious priesthood; never entered 
Herod's house but once in His life, and then was 
carried to Pilate's hall. He ate with publicans and 
sinners. Appeared to have no important business 
on hand, or object in view, except that of healing a 
few sick persons belonging to the common herd. 
True, He read and explained to them Moses and the 
prophets; but He did it in a sort of mystical way 
that no one had ever thought of before. In fact. He 
was nothing but a heretic. His mode of explaining 
the Scriptures completely ruined their ideas of uni- 
versal empire and untold wealth. This was their 
true legitimate King. He who should have been 
seated upon David's throne had not where to lay 
His head. What! not willing to let Him repose 
in peace in His own kingdom! ISTo; nor were they 
even willing to allow Him to breathe the free air of 
heaven. Imagining that He might possibly claim 
that wdiich was justly His own by birthright, by 
creation and redemption, they assembled around 
Pilate's hall, crying, "Away with Him; crucify 
Him ; we have no king but C?esar." And soon a 
crowd gathers without the gates of Jerusalem. Ro- 
man soldiers are there. Proud scribes and haughty 
priests. A few disciples are now scattered over the 



CHRIST A KING-. 509 

liills in the distance, like sheep without a pastor. A 
crowd of weeping women stand around. We draw 
near. What is all this excitement? w^e inquire. They 
tell us. Two thieves and an outcast blasphemer are 
suffering the extreme penalty of the law. One of 
them wears a crown — horrible mockery in the hour 
of death. It is made of the acanthus — a thorny plant 
with wliich fools were crowned in derision. But 
there is an inscription over His head. We must 
draw very near before we can read it, for the sun has 
drawn a mantle over his face. It is written in three 
languages. It is " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews," And as we read, we hear the sufferer ex- 
claim, ''It is finished." Yes! Satanic malignity and 
human malice have done their utmost. Then comes 
the soldier with bloody spear.' The last nail has 
been driven. Then the night comes, — dark night, — 
and anotlier company gathers there. They take 
the body down from the cross. These in turn are 
followed by Roman officers, who set the seal of the 
Roman empire upon His grave. And Satan tri- 
umphs ! 

JS^ow let us turn to another scene. In a large city, 
one of the largest cities in the known world, the 
capital of a mighty empire, there is a most wonder- 
ful commotion. A king is about to be crowned. 
Yespasian (Csesar) has returned from his conquests, 
and is about to take his seat upon the imperial 
throne. The whole Roman world is moved. The 
triumphal procession sweeps by, composed of bands 
of martial music; a long train of captives — strong 



510 SERMONS. 

men taken in battle; a host of weeping women ; 
cars loaded with gold and silver ; idols made of 
gold and decked with precious stones ; the mem- 
bers of the royal family ; an immense army in 
burnished armor. The king is crowned ! 

Another company is gathered in an upper room 
in Jerusalem. Some of those w^ho stood around the 
cross are there. A rushing sound is heard. A 
dozen tongues of flame descend, and a dozen hearts 
are open for their reception. A King is crowned in 
the hearts of His disciples. Since the beginning of 
the world has any one ever heard of such a coro- 
nation ? 

God breathed upon the army of Assyria, and it 
perished. Upon Rome His judgments have fallen. 
Eigliteen centuries have rolled away, and where are 
the cruciflers of our Lord ? The Roman enipire has 
vanished. Herod's throne is vacant. The temple 
and its admirers have perished. 

The kingdom established on the day of Pentecost 
has filled the earth. Ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand on this Sabbath daj' bow the knee to King 
Emmanuel. 

" Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye hfted 
up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall 
come in. Who is tliis King of glory? The Lord, 
strong and mighty ; the Lord, mighty in battle. 
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, 
ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory sliall 
come in. Who is this King of glory ? The Lord 
of Hosts, He is the King of glory." 



OUR HIGH PEIEST. 511 

Another coronation shall be witnessed. A throne 
resting upon a sea of crystal shall be the seat of this 
King ; His crown a coronet of shining worlds. To 
the King eternal, tlie only wise God, be all honor 
and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 



YIL OUR HIGH PRIEST.— I^o. 1, 

"For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with 
the feehng of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly 
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." — Heb. iv. 15, 16. (Read Heb. 
iv. 12, to the end of chapter five.) 

The text which we have chosen for our considera- 
tion this morning owes its value to the fact that 
Jesus Christ is God. Without the divinity of Christ 
He could be no Priest for us. The only value 
attached to the Aaronic priesthood is, that it was a 
sliadow and type of a priesthood that could remove 
sin. This the Aaronic priesthood could not do. In 
order that Christ should remove sin, He must be 
divine. Anything short of this, unless typical, nmst 
be but a gross deception, and we are still in our sins. 
But at the same time, Christ being divine, in order 
to have power to remove our sins. He must also be 
human, in order tliat we may know tliat He can 
sympathize with us. 

At a very early period in the history of the Chris- 
tian Cliurch tliere was a party wiiich held the view 
that Christ was divine, but that the divinity only re- 



512 SERMONS. 

sided in the man Jesus. That is, that His body was 
human, but that His soul was divine — a divine soul 
moving and actuating a human bod)^ This view- 
was condemned by the Church as a heresy. 

This view does not correspond with the language 
of Scripture, which speaks of the Eternal Word as 
being "made flesh," not that He " clothed" Him- 
self with our humanity, as we would put on or lay 
aside a dress, but tlmt. the Son of God became tlie 
Son of man in the most perfect and complete mean- 
ing of the word — sin only excepted. This, then, leads 
us to the conclusion that " Christ became man by 
taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable 
soul." 

We find, tlien, in Christ a High Priest who could 
be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Being 
man, He wept at the tomb of the dead Lazarus; 
being man. He suffered witli hunger in the wilder- 
ness ; being man, He was w^earied with the journey 
throuo;h Samaria, and seated Himself to rest by the 
well at Sychar; being man. He thirsted on the cross ; 
being man, he selected one out of the twelve dis- 
ciples to be His bosom companion ; being man. He 
suffered in the garden of Getlisemane, in anticipa- 
tion of the terrible agony He was about to endure 
on the cross. Thus we see manifested in tlie life of 
Christ, not only those physical sufferings which per- 
tain to the human body, but also those emotions 
which pertain to the human soul, such as love, grief, 
fear, friendship, compassion, tenderness, and anguish. 

Kor yet, on the other hand, are we to understand 
that Christ became man only for a limited time, and 



OUR HIGH PRIEST. 513 

then returned to His former condition. We are not 
to understand that Christ Dossessed no connection 
with our humanity until born of the Virgin Mary, 
and that He again laid aside the humanity after, or 
in either His resurrection or ascension. All the pa- 
triarchs and prophets were saved through the merits 
of tlie Lainb slain from the foundation of tlie world. 
When Christ speaks of His own descent from heaven, 
and of His ascent thither again, He does not speak 
of the " Son of God " as descending from heaven, 
but of the Son of man. It was the Son of man who 
came down from heaven. '' What and if ye shall 
see the Son of man ascend up where He was be- 
fore ?" This certainly shows that there was a most 
intimate relationship between the Son of God and 
the Son of man long before the wise men from the 
east came to worship the new-born babe of Bethle- 
hem, although with our finite comprehension we 
may not be able to define clearly that relationship. 

Now, it is this humanity in Christ wdiich gives 
value to our religion ; it is the golden chain which 
unites us with Deity. Were it not for this, God, to us, 
would be a great moral iceberg, with which we could 
never come in contact without being frozen. We 
would be separated from Him by an immense, un- 
fathomabla gulf; and even supposing that we could 
keep His law in all its perfection, w^e would receive 
no smile of approbation. All would be cold, cold — 
fatliomless, unapproachable ! And the moment we 
broke that law, God's anger would consume us, 
God would then become to us a consuming fire. 

But when we know that there dwells in the very 



514: SERMONS. 

bosom of Deity itself a sympathizing humanity — a 
great High Priest wlio knows and sympathizes with 
us in all our temptations and sorrows, being touched 
with a feeling of our infirmities, and who has been 
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without 
sin — we can come l)oldly to tlie throne of grace, as a 
child would come to its own mother, expecting that 
sympatliy and love which it could find nowhere else. 
Now, we are told that Christ was "tempted in all 
points like as we are, yet without sin." This indi- 
cates that His was a perfect humanity, or it could 
not be subject to temptation. An acid applied to 
silver may test it, prove wlietlier it is genuine silver 
or a false coin ; but the same acid applied to gold 
would be no test. Another and a different acid is 
here used, and if the gold be mixed with alloy the 
beautiful bright yellow color is at once exchanged 
for a dirty green. So the temptations to which our 
Great High Priest was exposed must be of the sattie 
nature to which our entire humanity is subject. 
Christ, then, being man, was subject to all tlie temp- 
tations to wliich we are exposed. Christ, tlien, in 
being made man, took upon Himself all the attri- 
butes of our sinful, fallen nature, and was tempted 
in all tliinj^s like as we are; and then, on the other 
hand, the divine nature reveals itself in the apostle's 
concluding words, " yet without sin." He was " holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." And 
again He says of Himself: " The prince of this w^orld 
cometh, and hath nothing in Me." All the Satanic 
darts of temptation were blunted the moment they 
came in contact with the heart of Christ. 



OUR HIGH PRIEST. 515 

Now, again, we are told that "Christ s\iffered^ 
being tempted." Suffering under temptation is not 
sin. Christ in the wihierness suffered from hunger. 
Tliere was no sin in tliat; but if He had used His 
divine power to prepare bread and feed Himself, as 
He fed five thousand with miraculous bread, or pro- 
vide Himself with wine as He provided miraculous 
wine for the invited guests at Cana of Galilee, there 
would have been sin then. His mission was to fulfil 
His Father's will in suffering temptation for our 
humanity, and He could not infringe on the Father's 
will without sin, and the Son of man must sufifer 
hunger; yes, the heavens must fall before He could, 
in any wise go contrary to His Father's will. Here 
was the tempter's power in endeavoring to persuade 
Him to gratify the carnal desire rather than obey 
the Divine will when it ran contrary to it. 

The tempter may have said: "Here, you were 
born with this desire to eat when you are hungry. 
If you do not eat, life will be endangered, and dis- 
ease and death follow. Then make bread of these 
stones, and satisfy this desire which God Himself 
has implanted in your nature." 

Tlie natural desires which God has implanted in 
the heart of man are not sinful. "Be ye angry, and 
sin not," is the language of the inspired penman. 
Sin is the gratification of desires that are forbidden. 
When resentment passes into retaliation and re- 
venge, it becomes sin. 

Sin, then, you understand, is not the carnal de- 
sires which God has implanted in man, but the ab- 
sence of a moral power in man to control those 



516 SERMONS. 

desires, and bring tliera into subjection to God's 
will. Wlien we speak of total depravity, do not 
understand that we mean that man's natural desires 
are totally depraved, but the utter absence of a 
divine principle that will control those desires. I 
may better illustrate this question by comparing 
man to a ship at sea. The ship in its whole con- 
struction may be perfect; there may be no leak; all 
the timbers are sound. She is well put together ; 
every sail, and rope, and cord is in its proper place. 
The sails may be said to be the passions implanted 
in man's heart. The prince of the power of the air, 
that worketh in the children of disobedience, sends 
his winds — temptations — that come in gentle breezes 
or terrific storms, to carry the vessel onward, either 
to the safe harbor or to destruction. Tiiis is the 
condition in vvhicli Adam left our race; but this is 
not total depravity. Total depravity is the absence 
of a pilot, who, knowing the temper of the winds, 
knows how to use them to his advantage, and steer 
the sliip to the port of safety. That pilot the natu- 
ral man lias not. The law is not that pilot. The 
law is the chart which tells where the danger lies. 
It points out the sunken rocks, and shows the coral 
reefs, and tlie shoals and breakers; but it can do 
nothing to guide the ship on its course. 

One thing, and one alone, of inestimable value, 
was left to man in the fall, but that cannot save him. 
The compass, that unerring needle which ever points 
to the north pole of man's destiny — the conscience 
— unless seared by a hot iron, will ever tell man 
when he is in the wrong. 1 repeat, that the con- 



OUR HIGH PRIEST. 517 

science caunot save man ; it can only tell him that 
his vessel is out of the right course, and consequently 
warn him that he is in a dangerous condition ; it 
cannot save him. 

If you insist that tlie doctrine of total depravity 
denies the survival of any germ of celestial origin 
through the ruins of the fall, then 1 must say that 
your doctrine is not mine, and that I do not so under- 
stand God's Word. The Bible teaches, and ex- 
perience teaches, that the conscience is a celestial 
germ, implanted in man with his birth. 

Our comparison here is imperfect, from the fact 
that the ship nmst travel many long leagues before 
she comes to the end of her journey. The journey 
of life may be a very short one. It may consist but 
of the brief days of the child, or the few fleeting 
years of youth. Nor is the vessel wrecked at the. 
hour of death. The human soul is wrecked when 
the compass is destroyed — when it rises in rebellion, 
and destroys the only remnant of tlie Divine image. 

This morning I can but treat of the condition of 
the soul under the Old Covenant; and oh! I wish I 
could make tlie whole as plain to you as I see it my- 
self. 

The whole teaching of the Old Covenant shows 
that there was a falling away. Paul says of Israel 
passing through the Red sea, *'For some when they 
had heard did provoke; howbeit not all that came 
out of Egypt by Moses." All the quibbling in the 
world will not change the condition of Saul. Samuel 
says to Saul, "The Spirit of the Lord will come upon 
thee;" and again, "God is with thee." The first 



518 SERMONS. 

chapter of Isaiah is an unanswerable argument: 
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the 
Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought 
up cliildren." What can be more emphatic than 
this: "Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a 
lodge in a garden of cucumbers." 

All of Christ's parables having reference to the 
Old Covenant teach tlie same thing. It is inscribed 
on every page of the Old Testament. 

Under the Old Testament there was falling away, 
there was repentance and a turning back, and there 
w^as falling away again. The Old Covenant was not 
limited to youth. 

A great, I may say a monstrous, error in our 
theology is, that we look upon such men as David as 
standing higher than Paul. I would not exchange 
my condition to-day for that of David. But did not 
David compose tlie penitential psalms, and do they 
not reveal the condition of David's lieart ? T answer, 
!No. The sublimest prophecy given to the world 
was by Balaau). 

So far, we present to you the condition of the Old 
Covenant. And wliat is the result. A certain in- 
fidel writer wrote a book and called it "Yolney's 
Ruins." Read the history of Israel as presented to 
us in the Old Testament and Josephus, and we may 
call it the ruins of the Old Covenant. Glance 
through this panoramic view, from Genesis to Mal- 
achi, and then end with Josephus; stand and gaze 
upon the shores of that panoramic river as it rolls 
down througli the ages, from Adam to the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem by Titus, and you see nothing but 



THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST. 519 

one great mass of colossal ruins, like tlie fossiliferous 
rocks that line the eastern shores of tlie Pacific 
Ocean, cast up from the grave of an antediluvian 
world. 

Without a pilot, one vessel in a hundred may drift 
to a liarbor of safety ; and so, as we glance through 
the pages of Old Testament history, how mr.ny of 
the family of ancient Israel have proved faithful unto 
the end, and oli ! how many millions have left their 
bones to wliiten in the wilderness of Sinai. 

In our next discourse, we shall consider the course 
of the vessel, with our Great High Priest as pilot at 
the helm. 



YIII. THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST.— No. 2. 

"For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly 
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." — Hebrews iv. 15, 16. (Kead 
Hebrews viii., and x. 15-31.) 

Having considered the condition of Israel under 
the Old Covenant as a ship without the pilot at the 
helm, but merely guided by human instrumentality, 
let us now consider the condition of the New Cove- 
nant Clmrcli when Christ's promise to His disciples 
is fulfilled: ^'I will pray the Eatlier, and He shall 
give you another Comforter, tliat He may abide with 
vou for ever." "The Comforter, which is tlie Holv 
Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name. He 



520 SERMONS. 

shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I liave said unto you." 
That Comforter proceeds from the Father and the 
Son. Possessing all the attributes of the Father, He 
also possesses those of the Son, and consequently 
standing to-day pilot of the New Covenant ship, we 
behold in His image the Great High Priest of our 
profession, who can be touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities. 

You may ask, "What is the difference between 
the Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant and the 
Holy Spirit under the New ?" I answer, that the 
Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant is the magnetic 
needle, warning of danger; the Holy Spirit under 
the New Covenant is the pilot at the helm, steering 
the vessel to a port of safety. 

Hearer, did you ever consider how much we are 
indebted to human sympathy forthe little happiness 
we enjoy? I know of no worse condition in which 
a man can be placed than to have no one to sympa- 
thize with him. Even the martyr in the flames was 
conscious that some one in the gaping crowd sym- 
pathized with him, even though he dare not make it 
known; and consciousness of the sympathy of God 
and angels made him endure the most excruciating 
torments with fortitude. 

Even the prisoner in his dungeon, knowing that 
he has the sympatliy of friends without, can endure 
his imprisonment with resignation; but to live in the 
world without sympathy, to move among others a 
cold, frozen iceberg in a frosty, waveless sea, with- 
out ever coming in contact with a single ray of suq- 



THE GEEAT HIGH PRIEST. 521 

shine from any tender, sympathizing heart, is but to 
exist like a skeleton in a graveyard among the silent 
dead. 

Suppose a traveller, passing through a foreign 
land, unable to speak the language of the country, 
travelling solitary and alone, or if with others, with 
those whose language he cannot understand, who 
look upon him as an enemy, who show him no signs 
of sympathy, and who recognize none of his emo- 
tions, how lonely he becomes! But let a fellow 
traveller join liim — a native of his own country — 
who speaks his own language, with whom he can 
converse freely about his voyage; wdiat they expect 
to find at the end of their journey, and about ten 
thousand things of interest, and oh ! how soon the 
bond of sympathy becomes strong between them. 
They have found in each other a brother. 

]^ow let us apply this to our ship driven before 
the winds of temptation on the stormy sea of life. 
The chart and the compass have pointed out our 
danger, and in the dim distance we see the shore 
white with the bones of a mighty host. Suddenly, 
like an angel from heaven, a pilot appears at the 
helm. We speak to Him, and He knows our lan- 
guage. We take hold of Him, and we find that He 
is of our humanity. We ask Him about the chart, 
and He knows the law ; not a foot of that rocky 
shore but His bleeding feet have trod ; not a crag 
among all those sharp pointed rocks which has not 
pierced His tender hands; not a sound w^hich He 
has not fathomed, nor a gulf into which He has not 
plunged; in fact, He headed the survey and drew 



522 SERMONS. 

the chart from His own soundings. Talk to Him 
about the compass, and He knows the philosophy of 
it all. Tell Hun about tlie land of your birth, and 
He knows it all, for He Himself was born there. 
Ask Him about the grave, and He can tell you all 
about it, for He has been through the grave. Ask 
Him about the world to which you are going, and 
He will tell you about all worlds, for He made them. 
Are you suffering pain, look at His pierced hands. 
Are you in terrible mental anguish, look at His 
bleeding side, and remember Gcthsemane. Are you 
mocked by the world, look at His purple robe and 
crown of thorns. Oh! we liave a '^ great High 
Priest who can be touched by a feeling of our in- 
firmities, and was tempted in all things like as we 
are, yet without sin." 

Now, in order to obtain the blessings of the New 
Covenant, we must put ourselves in sympathy witli 
Christ. We must look upon those pierced hands 
and feet, and feel the nails piercing our flesh also. 
We must look upon that bleeding side, and feel the 
spear as it penetrates our heart; and as we see 
Him mocked with a purple robe and crown of thorns, 
we must take up His cross and follow after Him. 

Again, we are disposed to imagine that Christ 
sympathizes with our humanity, and not with us as 
individuals. This is a great mistake. Christ sym- 
pathizes as much to-day with each one of my hearers 
as He did with the five tliousand that He fed with 
loaves and fishes. If there is an erring Peter or 
doubting Thomas here to-night, Christ sympathizes 
with him. If there is some small, insignificant 



THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST. 523 

Zaccheiis here to-night, who would get a better view 
of his risen Lord, Christ invites him to open the 
door of his heart, and He will come in and sup with 
him. Is there some poor despised woman of Canaan 
here who craves but a crumb from the Master's 
table, she shall be fed abundantly. Is there some 
poor forsaken one here who can but press through 
the crowd, and only touch the hem of His gar- 
ment, she shall be healed from all the infirmities 
of the soul. "Let us therefore," brethren, ''come 
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 

Again, we are comforted with the human and the 
divine natures of Jesus. If Jesus were but a man, 
He could be no judge of sinners. David could not 
judge. When he supposed that he was judging an- 
other man for a crime wliich he himself had com- 
mitted, he said, "He shall surely die." The men 
who brought an adulterous woman to Christ would 
have stoned her to death without mercy, and in the 
end proved themselves equally guilty. Should we 
be allowed to condemn ourselves, under the suppo- 
sition that we were condemnmg our worst enemies, 
I fear we would shame Torquemada and the Spanish 
Inquisition. But we have a Judge who is divine; 
seated not in Moses' seat, supported by the ten com- 
mandments, but upon a throne of grace, supported 
by the everlasting gospel, proclaiming "Peace and 
good will to men." 

" To find grace to help in time of need^ Oh ! 
what a world of meaning there is in these words. 
Are you tem.pted above all other men ? Has Satan 



524: SERMONS. 

SO woven liis coils around you that he is dragging 
you down with giant force to a drunkard's grave 
and perhaps a drunkard's liell ? Go to the throne 
of grace, and find lielp in time of need. 

Has the infidel, with spider-like cunning, been weav- 
ing his subtile philosophy over your brain until you 
swim in a sea of doubts, gasping, struggling, quiver- 
ing ? fio to the throne of grace, and find help in 
time of need. 

Have worldly cares so swallowed up your life that 
you feel your moral nature cramped, dwarfed, igno- 
rant of God's word, and ignorant of the gospel plan 
of salvation ? Go to a throne of grace, and find iielp 
in time of need. '' If any of you lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, 
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." 

Are you suffering in body, racked with physical 
pain ? Does the burning fever rack your temples, 
and send tlie hot blood pulsating through your veins ? 
Go to a throne of grace, and find help in time of 
need. 

Has the world turned a cold shoulder upon you ? 
are you afflicted with poverty and want? do sor- 
row and care weigh you down, and has life become 
a burden almost too great to bear? Go to a throne 
of grace, and find help in time of need. 

Has the cold hand of death thrust itself between 
you and some beloved one — removing a father, mo- 
tlior, brother, sister, wife, or child — and left the bloom- 
ing Eden to you a cold, barren wilderness of ice ? Go 
to a throne of grace, and find help in time of need. 

Have (Satan and all the armies of hell pursued you, 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 525 

like Pharoah and his host, down into the great Red 
sea of deatli? Go to a throne of grace, and find 
grace to help in time of need. And behold, a way 
will open up before you, even through the grave, 
and the Angel of the Covenant will follow you, re- 
ceiving all the fiery darts of the enemy into His own 
bosom. 

" Let us, then, come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
tliat we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 
time of need." 



IX. THE LABOEERS IN THE VINEYARD. 

" So the last shall be first, and the first last ; for many be called, 
but few chosen," — Matt, xx, 16. 

Our Bible was divided into chapters and verses 
in modern times. The proper divisions made by the 
authors themselves are designated by paragraphs. 
The last four verses of tlie nineteenth chapter belong 
to the twentieth chapter. Isolated as it stands now, 
a superficial reader would get a very erroneous mean- 
ing from the parable. In fact, the great majority of 
Bible readers suppose that the meaning is, that God 
calls people at all ages of life, and that those who 
begin to serve Him after a long life of sin will be 
rewarded tlie same as those who begin to serve the 
Lord in early youth. Such is not the meaning of 
the parable. Our Lord never intended to convey to 
the minds of the disciples any such idea as this. 

The proper meaning of this parable can only be 



526 SERMONS. 

obtained by a careful examination of the circum- 
stances wliich preceded it, and which induced our 
Lord to present it to His disciples. 

First, we have a young nobleman presenting him- 
self to our Lord, and inquiring wliat he sliould do 
that he might inherit eternal life. This ricli young 
man's affections were placed upon the riches of this 
world, and as lie goes away sorrowful when told to 
sell his property and give to the poor, our Lord turns 
to His disciples and says to them, " How hard it is 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven !" 
Then Peter, who appears to have been the spokes- 
man for all the disciples, says, " Behold, we have 
forsaken all and followed Thee ; what shall we 
have therefore ?" Then our Lord pronounced these 
remarkable words: "Yerily I say unto you, that ye 
which have followed Me, in the regeneration when 
the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, 
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel." Then He adds, " But many 
that are first shall be last, and the last sliall be first. 
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is 
an householder." In the original Greek th'3 thirtieth 
verse of tlie nineteenth chapter, and first verse of the 
twentieth chapter, are all one sentence; there is not 
even a capital letter to divide the sentence. 

The day in which these laborers worked in the 
vineyard is not the day of life, but the day of the 
first covenant, whose night was now approaching. 
The sun, moon, and stars of that covenant were soon 
to be darkened, according to the prophecies. The 
night was approaching; this was already the eleventh 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 627 

hour. The night set in when our Savior hung upon 
the cross. 

I tliiuk that the whole solution of this parable is 
in the fact that it is an answer to the question asked 
bj the disciples in the beginning of the eighteenth 
chapter, " Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven ?" and now referred to again by the second 
question on the same subject, " What shall we liave 
tlierefore ?" the answer to the first being unsatis- 
factory to the disciples. 

Many imagine that the kingdom of heaven is like 
a tree — first a large trunk, out of which grow" great 
branches, and then smaller branches from these, and 
so on down, continually decreasing in size. The 
patriarchs w^ere the trunk, the Israelites called from 
Egypt the branches, and so on down, till in Christ's 
time the disciples would be but small twigs. 

Tlie minds of the disciples, like the scribes and 
Pharisees, were filled with the idea of a temporal 
kingdom. To them it was a matter of great impor- 
tance what position they should occupy. The scribes 
and Pharisees claim to be the old trunk. What, 
then, can the disciples be but small branches? Now 
He tells them that those who follow Him all the way 
through the regeneration — that is, through the grave, 
into the new kingdom — shall sit on twelve thrones; 
and that many that are last shall be first, and the 
first last. How is this? 

One important lesson taught by the tree and its 
branches must not be lost sight of. The old trunk 
is near the earth, the branches nearest heaven, and 
even the smallest twigs reign over the trunk as well 



528 BEKMO^S. 

as the large branches; just as Christ said of John 
the Baptist, "Yerily, I say unto you, Among them 
that are born of women there hath not risen a 
greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he 
that is least in tlie kingdom of heaven is greater 
than he." 

Christ expressed the same idea to His disciples at 
the well of Samaria: ''Say not ye, There are yet 
four months, and then cometh harvest? beliold, I 
say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the 
fields; for they are white already to harvest. And 
he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit 
unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he 
that reapetii maj^ rejoice together. And herein is 
that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 
I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no 
labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into 
their labors." 

You will observe that tlie householder went out 
early in the morning; then again at the third, sixth, 
ninth, and eleventh hours. Early in the morning 
of Israel's history He called laborers into His vine- 
yard by Moses and the law. Then again He called 
them by judges and kings. Then at mid-day He 
sent His prophets to call laborers. And now, at 
the eleventh hour. He sends John the Baptist and 
His own disciples. Now, which of these called shall 
obtain the most prominent position in His kingdom ? 

"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man 
that is a houseliolder, which went out early in the 
morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And 
when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 



529 



day, he sent them into his vineyard." He agrees to 
pay a penny — a day's wages, supposing a penny to 
be about one dollar of our money. He makes a 
bargain with them, and holds them to their bargain. 

"And he went out about the third hour, and saw 
others standing idle in the .marketplace, and said 
unto them. Go ye also into the vineyard, and what- 
soever is right I will give you. And they went their 
way. Again he went out about tlie sixth and ninth 
hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh 
hour he went out, and found others standing idle, 
and saitli unto them, Why stand ye here all the day 
idle? They say unto him. Because no man hath 
hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the 
vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye re- 
ceive." All labor that is not in Christ's vineyard is, 
in His sight, "standing idle." 

"A^c 7nan hath hired us''^ cannot be applied to the 
Jews, who knew the will of the Lord, and would 
clearly indicate the Gentile world. No such answer 
as this can be given to-day by people living in Chris- 
tian lands and laboring in Satan's vineyard. Gospel 
ministers are everywhere employed in hiring labor- 
ers for the Lord's vineyard. 

"So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard 
saith unto his steward. Call the laborers, and give 
them their hire, beginning from the last unto the 
first." This was according to the Jewish law, to 
pay every man at nightfall : " At his day thou shalt 
give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon 
it." We very much need some such law as this in 
some of the upper branches of the Christian church. 

23 



530 



SERMONS* 



A few wholesome Jewish laws like this would be a 
great improvement on our boasted Christianity. 

" And when they came that were hired about the 
eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 
But when the first came, they supposed that they 
should have received more; and tliey likewise re- 
ceived every man a penny. And when they had 
received it, they murmured against tlie good man of 
the house, saying. These last have wrought but one 
hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which 
have borne the burden and heat of the day." The 
reward given is eternal life. God said to Abraham, 
^'I am thy exceeding great reward." This is the 
reward given to all. 

''But he answered one of them, and said. Friend, 
I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me 
for a penny ? Take that thine is, and go thy way : 
I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it 
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own % 
Is thine eye evil, because I am good ?" The " friend " 
here is probably one of the most importunate. 

I think that the whole force of the parable is to 
show that tliose who are called into the new kingdom 
of Christ under the New Covenant, although occu- 
pying a later and easier position, receive the same 
reward with the faithful Jews called under the law. 

"So the last shall be first, and the first last: for 
many be called, but few chosen." These are called 
last, but they come in first. The others are called 
to God's kingdom as servants ; these are chosen for 
Christ's spiritual kingdom as a spiritual priesthood. 
The Jews may murmur because they were called 



THE LABOKEKS IN THE VINEYARD. 531 

first, and, as it appears, are going to be tlie last to 
enter the kingdom. 

God does not reward men according to the amount 
of hxbor they accomplish in His vineyard. Nor do 
we pay men according to the amount of labor, but 
according to the value of their labor. If we build a 
house, we may pay the man who digs the cellar lifty 
cents a day; the mason who lays the foundation, one 
dollar a day; the carpenter who does common car- 
penter work, two dollars; the one who does orna- 
mental work, three dollars; and the architect, ten 
dollars; and yet each one receives the just value of 
his labor. Nor is any injustice done. The man 
who digs the cellar never spent an hour's time in 
learning his trade, while the architect may have 
spent half a lifetime in learning his. The clerk or 
bookkeeper may have prepared himself for his occu- 
pation by two or three years' study, while the minister 
in the pulpit may have gone through a course of 
study occupying twenty or thirty years. Would it 
be right that each receive the same wages? Now 
God knows all these differences, and rewards each 
and all according to His infinite view of justice, and 
not according to the superficial view of a day laborer 
who does not even know what it costs to learn the 
multiplication table. 

Again, what were ages in the Jewish dispensation 
are only different positions under the Christian dis- 
pensation. You of the different calls are all arranged 
in these pews before me. I do not know the posi- 
tions in God's kingdom that you occupy, but He does; 
and by the light of His Word I can describe the 



532 SERMONS. 

various positions you may occupy. There is one 
who was called in infancy; he was dedicated to God 
by a symbol of Christian baptism; his parents bap- 
tized him with the word. This one was called in 
the morning early. To-day, where is he? Every- 
thing connected with his religion may be counted on 
the ends of your fingers: he can repeat the Lord's 
Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Command- 
ments, and twenty or thirty questions and answers 
in the Shorter Catechism; has an idea of the life of 
Christ and the Acts of the Apostles; he plods on 
year after year, contented with what he knows. A 
bad man you cannot call him, for he injures no one, 
and you may say he does no one any good. He just 
vegetates from year to 3'ear, with a name to live. 
This is one of the first. 

Another was called a little later. He styles himself 
a convert. He does not understand infant baptism, 
and does not want to understand it; thinks that none 
but adult believers should be admitted into the vine- 
yard; that is, that none will receive pay but those 
who were called when he was and as he was. He 
is faithful, hoeing away just four rows from the door, 
and there he will hoe till sundown. To him the 
church is not a place of improvement, but a place 
where he can " feel good ;" and when he sees a 
brother returning from meeting, he does not inquire, 
"How much did you learn about Christ and His 
kingdom?" but "Did you have a good time?" 

But here are others, called at the eleventh hour, 
and soon they are chosen to a higher position. Poor 
fishermen they are when called ; at last we see them 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 533 

seated upon thrones, judging the first called. Millions 
are called to be servants, but few are chosen to be 
kings. Oh ! I wish I could implant in the breasts 
of each one of you a desire to be stars of the first 
magnitude. 



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